


Building Faith Book 1: What is Known

by ellf



Series: Building Faith [1]
Category: The Dresden Files - All Media Types, The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Genre: Alternate Universe - Twins, Gen, Self-Insert, hivemind - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-05
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-10-28 05:46:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 29
Words: 85,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10825005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellf/pseuds/ellf
Summary: When your father is a Knight of the Cross and your twin sister is destined to become the Winter Lady, what can you do but try to fix things? Can I do so without making things worse?





	1. Prologue

_The Past is Prologue_

* * *

Disclaimer: Jim Butcher owns the Dresden Files, any other works of fiction mentioned are not owned by me.

Every culture has theories about death, about the afterlife. Every major religion speaks about it, falling asleep in the hopes of rising again, visiting the gates of Heaven, being thrown into the depths of Hell. Some say death is an ending, something all living beings must do as their time on this plane of existence comes to an end. Some say death is just the start of a grand new adventure. Some prefer not to speak of death, instead worrying about the day to day, never once giving a thought that they might die.

I had been one of those people, really. I never gave much thought to my own death, to my own mortality, so when my time ran up on my clock, it had been a surprise. Death was short, sudden, impactful, and for the briefest of moments, I felt pain before fading to black. Some say that death is the end, but for me, my death is only the beginning.

I had come to Chicago on a business trip, visiting a vendor to check over some procedures. All had mostly seemed okay, for what they were doing, and after finishing for the day, I was on my way back to my hotel. I can’t recall exactly what distracted me. Might have been my cell phone, might have been me dropping something in the car, but distracted driving in Chicago’s traffic isn’t a mistake that I would live to make twice. I remember hearing a loud crunching noise, and feeling a modicum of pain followed by blackness and a single light.

I wish I could say that this is the point I mention my life flashing before my eyes, that I thought over my sins and that I lived a good life. I wish I could say that in that moment I solemnly knew that everything would be all right, and my family would handle it just fine. Hell, I wish I could say that my last thoughts were of something profound, the deepest words ever thought by a person on Earth.

I really do wish that I could say that, but when your last thoughts are “Damn, now I’m going to have to pay the deductible,” something’s wrong. No life flashing before my eyes, no intent clarity, just the thought about my rental car and having to pay some money out. Kind of makes me seem cheap, doesn’t it?

My entire vision was taken up by darkness. I was either dead, unconscious or blind, and given that I seemed aware and there was a single point of light, none of the three options made much sense. I could still feel, still smell, still see, as that light grew bigger.

And bigger. Why the hell was the light growing? Oh… it wasn’t growing. It was _moving_ , and moving toward me. Oh, that couldn’t be good.

Then I heard the horn, or perhaps it was a whistle. The shrill sound of an oncoming train echoed around me, and as my eyes adjusted to the area, I could see the tracks I was standing on. I _knew_ that I’d been in my car when I’d gotten hit, and therefore there was no way I could be standing where I was. That didn’t stop the train from coming. So there were really three options here. One, I was dead, and the train couldn’t hurt me. Two, I was asleep, and the train couldn’t hurt me. Three, I was high on something and the train, if actually there could hurt me. Two out of three put my chances at survival from the train at a fairly decent rate.

“What are you, stupid? Get off the tracks!” A man’s voice called out to me from the side, shaking me from my reverie and as I got close, he grabbed my shoulders, hauling me off of the tracks with the ease of someone pulling a trash bag. “You don’t want to catch that train, kid. It’s not going your way.”

I watched as the train passed, the acrid smell of sulfur coming to my nose, and the darkened passenger and freight cars passing by at speed. I turned toward my savior to find a blond-haired blue-eyed man dressed in a battered pinstripe suit, clearly used to a position of authority. He had a boxer’s build and a strong jawline, and those forearms looked like they could tear me in half. Whoever this was, this was definitely someone I did not want to fuck with.

“… Thank you, sir…” I started to say, but I stopped and frowned at my voice. It sounded a bit off to me, but I couldn’t exactly tell why. It probably had something to do with my current situation. If it was a dream, I probably always sounded wrong in my dreams, and if I was dead, I was hearing my spirit talk.

“It was nothing, kid.” The man waved off my thanks. He then pulled out a clipboard from under his jacket and flipped through the papers in it. “Oh, that’s interesting. You look to be the right person.”

“Right person?” I asked, and glanced around. Now that my eyes had fully adjusted, it looked like I was definitely in Chicago, albeit a darker version of it with shadows creeping everywhere. It should have been daytime, but with the sky overcast the way it was, the shadows nosed their way out from the alleyways and up the sides of the buildings. It was as if the shadows were alive, holding the buildings up. The skyscrapers still touched the sky, but the color just seemed faded from them, leached out by the shadows. “Where are we anyway?”

“That doesn’t matter… you aren’t really supposed to be here at the moment, kid, but someone messed up.” The man sounded annoyed. “So, what we’re going to have to do is give you a choice. We can send you back, or you can continue on toward your final destination.”

Send me back? What did he mean by that? Did he mean that I’d be able to wake up from this weird dream? Where would I be when I woke up? I mean, I was in a car accident.

Might as well ask. “Where exactly is here? And what do you mean by send me back?”

“Here’s… we call it the between. It’s not quite Heaven, not quite Hell, and while some might call it Purgatory, that’s actually a slightly different place. Chicago, but different.” He flipped through the papers some more. “As for sending you back, we’ll be getting you to your body, and you should be fine for another certain amount of years. Or you could move on, and see what’s next for you. Your choice.”

This seemed like a no-brainer. I wasn’t ready for the beyond, so I’d have to go back. Besides, I probably needed to go to Confession at least once before dying, and I hadn’t had the chance here.

“I’ll go back.” I said, my determination getting through. While the people I had weren’t depending on me for anything, they would miss me.

“All right, kid.” The man said and then gestured to a car that hadn’t been there before. I could see police lights under the roof, and it resembled a Dodge Charger, perhaps about twenty years ago. “Hop in the passenger side.”

I nodded. I didn’t exactly like that he was calling me kid, but given that we hadn’t so much as thought of exchanging names yet, I couldn’t fault him. I probably looked a bit younger if I was clean shaven, but I was twenty-eight. I’m still not sure how he could have justified calling me kid save for just as a name replacement.

I climbed in the passenger seat of the cruiser and buckled up. Looking around the interior, I saw a standard issue police radio, along with a set of numbers along the dash indicating either the cruiser number or the man’s badge number. Given that he didn’t wear a uniform I could only assume he was a detective of some sort. I didn’t know his rank though.

“So, how does this work, exactly?” I asked as the detective stepped into the car and started it. “Me going back, I mean.”

“Simple enough, kid. I take you to where you need to be to go back, and you follow the instructions. You’ll be waking up in no time. Consider yourself lucky.” He put the car into drive and headed away from the tracks, downtown. Normally when given a lull in the conversation like this one, I would try to make some small talk, get to know the person sitting next to me, but I wasn’t entirely sure even where to start. Between. Chicago between. That tugged at my memory a bit, but for the life of me, or death of me, as the case would be, I couldn’t remember.

So instead of talking, I looked out the window of the cruiser, watching the buildings pass. Unlike what I’d seen in regular Chicago, this version was far less crowded, and there was a sense of… something, hiding in the shadows. I’d been a gamer in life, so the atmosphere got to me for a little bit before I saw it. A face hid in the shadows, lurking, watching.

“Don’t look at it, kid.” The detective spoke up. “Don’t even acknowledge it’s there. You’re safe in here, but… It wants you not to be.”

“My name’s not kid.” I followed his instructions, despite my answer. “And I don’t even know yours.”

“Call me Jack, kid. And I know your name, but you’re a kid compared to me. Thus you get stuck with the nickname. If you stuck around, maybe the name would one-up, but you’re on your way back,” Jack said and then stopped the car in front of a hospital. “All you need to do is go inside there, and walk down the third wing on your left. You’ll be waking up before you know it.”

“Third wing, right…” I trailed off as I looked at the door and frowned. I was taking this too passively, but then I’d never really been one for confrontation. If I stepped outside the car, I didn’t know what would happen. Would I wake up like a friend of mine had? Unable to walk, fluid drained out of my skull, having to relearn a bunch of things simply due to muscles being unable to be used for a while? Still, I wasn’t ready to truly be dead yet. I had so much more I wanted to do.

“Get moving kid. You don’t have all of eternity,” Jack urged me on, and he was right. I didn’t know how long I’d been here already, but it couldn’t have been too long.

Gripping the handle, I breathed out a sigh, and pushed it open. Stepping out of the car, I looked around. The Chicago between still encroached on me with its shadowed state, and I had the feeling of being watched by someone other than Jack. Sparrow? No, he looked nothing like a pirate. Anyway, that was a fictional movie, and this was real.

I stepped into the hospital, and it too retained the mood lighting of the outside. The closest analogy I could think of would be a hospital with the lights other than emergency lighting out, only the atmosphere felt more oppressive. I walked into the main lobby, and froze in place for a second, just trying to get my bearings. Wings. I needed to go down one of the wings. It really hadn’t been all that long ago that Jack had given me the instructions. Third wing, right? Third wing sounded right.

The door behind me slammed, and the uneasiness I felt grew. I dared not to look back at whatever was behind me. Jack had said to ignore it, to not give it the satisfaction. Easier said than done. I started to push through the pressure, taking a step at a time, and for each step of mine, another echoed behind me.

He kept pace behind me, clearly walking at the same speed I was. I wasn’t sure how I knew it was a he, but whatever it was, it was there and male. I’d seen his face in the shadows. In the places I wasn’t meant to be. I’d need to get to where I was going, and quickly.

Right. I’d go right. One wing. Too soon. I wouldn’t run. Running would just make it chase me rather than simply following behind. It was content to stalk, and I didn’t want to provoke it into doing something more. Two wings. All I needed to do was to get down here, and I’d be safe. Woken up, untouched by whatever this experience was. There. Third wing. I’d be fine. All I needed to do was go inside.

“Oh, mortal… are you so certain that you want to leave so soon?” The thing’s voice was low, calm, and British. Its voice came out despite what little I’d seen of it. Jack had warned me to ignore it. “You could learn much from me, I think.”

Okay. That was it. Time to wake up for real now; its voice just ate at my psyche. There was far more to its voice than simply what I’d heard, and I could _feel_ that. No. It wouldn’t touch me, and I wouldn’t grant it the satisfaction of answering it. It could stay behind me as I grabbed the handle on the door to the wing.

“Pity. I would seek thee again, soon enough,” The thing said as I pulled open the door. No, I wouldn’t even listen to it further. I stepped through, eyes closed. It was time to wake up. No more dreams of whatever this was. I couldn’t let that happen further.

When I opened my eyes, I was practically blinded by the light, only making out a few fuzzy shapes larger than me. I blinked a few times, and moved my hands, but it felt like my arms were made of lead. I could feel my legs, so that was a good sign, but they seemed to be stuck in something warm and gooey. Then one of the larger shapes came closer to me and moved down toward around my waist, and I kid you not, massive hands grabbed around me and pulled me, lifting me what felt like thirty feet in the air. And then the hand held me upside down, and I heard a snipping noise.

Suddenly I couldn’t breathe. Where was the air? Why was this happening to me? Who cut off the oxygen supply? Then another hand struck me across the back and the air came to me. I made a bit of noise, gasping for the air, making sure I could hear myself.

“Congratulations,” A man’s voice said, probably coming from the large shadow that the hands were attached to. “Twins, and they’re both healthy looking.”

Twins? Wait… what?

The hands passed me to another set that were far softer, and they held me close. “We certainly weren’t expecting twins. I’m not sure how we’ll provide for them both.”

The voice was kind, caring, and female. Matronly was the word, but she also sounded young.

Another voice cut in, a second masculine one that came out a bit deeper. “Have faith. The Lord will provide for us.”

“Faith…” The woman holding me said, and my eyes focused on her blurry shape. I could see her eyes now, as she looked into mine. They were a brilliant shade of blue, and I could see the kindness in them, the love. “Now, that’s a good name for you, isn’t it? Molly and Faith, our beautiful twin girls…”

Well. Fuck.  



	2. Chapter One

_What is Known 1_

* * *

Disclaimer: Jim Butcher owns the Dresden Files, any other works of fiction mentioned are not owned by me.

My name is Faith Carpenter, and puberty sucks. It sucked the first time around, and I didn’t have to deal with half the crap that I was going through this time around. Sure, I got to watch my sisters go through it the first time, but I was out of the house by the time the youngest three started. I missed them at times, and I often wondered how they were handling my… death. I’d faced the facts about six years ago. The person I was before was dead. Gone, and on a different Earth completely to this one. Sure, it was possible that I could return to that Earth at some point, but that would require some severe messing around with magic in the right areas, and I didn’t even know if I could yet. I didn’t even know if I would want to yet.

My twin would eventually be able to. Molly, my older twin sister by three minutes, had one hell of a destiny in front of her, assuming my being here didn’t completely mess it up. Of course, I wasn’t even sure if I _should_ mess with things. The moment I started to mess with anything, that was the moment that all of my foreknowledge went out the window. That said, there were definitely things that would happen with or without me doing anything, unless I did something massively stupid, so I could probably count on at least some of those to happen.

I splashed water on my face and looked into the mirror, staring at the same face that I’d been looking at for the past fourteen years. Ish. I was a blonde girl, with blue eyes, and if I were to be honest with my formerly male mind, kind of cute. I’d cut my hair short recently, letting it only go down so that it barely touched my neck. When I was certain it wouldn’t piss Mom off, I’d probably go even shorter. I don’t like having long hair, too tough to manage.

I pulled out the astringent pads, and began to wipe down my face. Yet another thing to hate about puberty, facial oils. It was bad enough that I was a teenager again; it’d be worse if I’d managed to get fucking pimples on top of it. I glanced at the make-up and decided against it. Au natural was best especially on days like today.

“Faiiiiiiii!” My sister stretched out her nickname of me as she called through the door of the bathroom. “Hurry up! I’ve got to get ready too…”

I unlocked the door and opened it, revealing Molly, already half-dressed for school given the outfit I knew she planned on changing into when we got there. I passed her the necessary materials as she went to deal with her own feminine issues.

Puberty sucks.

“Sorry, didn’t want Danny or Matt coming in, and I got up first.” I started putting on my own uniform. Blegh. The outfit was conservative enough that it wasn’t too bad, but the skirt still threw me a bit. Sure, I’d worn less conservative things, but they weren’t the subject of some sick pervert’s fetish. Well, maybe the one cosplay.

“That dream again?” Molly asked, and I passed her a hair tie. She was worrying about me again. I didn’t like it when that happened, but I couldn’t help it when she did.

“Yeah…” The dream… How to describe it… It was about what I’d seen between my death and rebirth. Well, sort of. It’s a nightmare about the being there. I couldn’t confirm it as a fact, not without potentially getting the White Council after me before I could even do magic, but I thought it might have been a Walker. I didn’t want to break the Law about Outsiders if I could avoid it.

Molly wrapped me into a hug. “It’ll be okay. Whatever happens, we’ll face it together like we always have.”

A smile came to my lips. “Yeah. Together.”

“And I’ll get you into that microskirt yet,” Molly said, still hugging me.

“Not a chance in hell,” I replied, and we released the hug. I set up my toothbrush and passed Molly hers and the toothpaste, finishing getting ready.

Once we were both in uniform, if it weren’t for our hairstyle differences, the average person probably wouldn’t be able to tell us apart. Molly kept her hair longer than I did, and she kept talking about dying it. Not around Mom, of course, but with me. The two of us shared a smirk, and we started toward the stairs. Thinking back to my old life, it was a bit odd to be so in sync with my sister, but it came natural to us. Always had.

On the way down, we passed Amanda, who grinned at us and pulled at my hands. Her blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail, but she was still in her pajamas. “C’mon! You gotta see, you gotta see!”

Molly looked at me, and then Amanda, gesturing with her left hand. _Eager little jawa, isn’t she?_

I smiled, nodded and gave a half-shrug. _She’s five._ “Okay, what do we have to see?” No, I wasn’t patronizing my little sister, why do you ask?

“Come on, you’ll see!” She pulled and I let myself be dragged along with Amanda into the kitchen where Alicia was sitting at the breakfast table already, reading a book that she probably borrowed from my shelf. Her school uniform was a bit cuter than mine and Molly’s, and it complimented her features. Sitting at the table with her was a tall dark-skinned man with short, cropped hair. He was handsome, to be certain, well built, and he could probably lift me single handed if he needed to. Lying against the wall near him was a sheathed cavalry saber. I knew if I looked at the pommel, there would be a hieroglyph for the sun etched upon it.

Biting my lip to help me focus, I looked to the kitchen. Dad and Mom were in there cooking, accompanied by a short Japanese man who was manning the frying pan. I could smell the bacon and eggs. Dad was preparing the coffee, while Mom had a kettle going for tea. On the wall near the stove was a cane, which I knew housed a very special katana, and I knew that in the other room, yet another blade was set up, ready to go.

I paused on the way to the table, color draining from my face as the realization hit me. All three Knights of the Cross were in my home. That could only mean one thing.

The Knights of the Blackened Denarius were in town. Fuck me.


	3. Chapter Two

_What is Known 2_

* * *

Disclaimer: Jim Butcher owns the Dresden Files, any other works of fiction mentioned are not owned by me.

* * *

  


Okay. Denarians in town. I could deal with this. I could stay safe. My family could remain safe. Dad was a pretty amazing Knight as it was, wielding _Amoracchius_ , the Sword of Love. Add Sanya, the ho-Russian wielder of _Esperacchius_ , the Sword of Hope, and add Shiro, the master swordsman who wielded _Fidelacchius_ , the Sword of Faith, and any one Denarian would have a hard time. The three swords were made to oppose the Denarians from the nails of the True Cross. I had my guesses as to which nail was associated with which sword, but ultimately it didn’t matter. They had power to oppose the Fallen within those thirty coins, those thirty pieces of silver. Still, it was unlikely that all thirty would be in town at once, given that the Church definitely had a few stashed away in some vault somewhere.

The only thing that would really cause me worry is if the Shroud of Turin was missing.

“Faith…”

Oh who was I kidding, the Shroud probably _was_ missing. This meant… what, _Summer Knight_? _Dead Bea-_ nah, that one was the one with Harry riding Sue. That one had to be coming up soon, and I definitely needed to see that. I mean, where else could you get to see an undead T-Rex? But no, the book in question was… probably _Death Masks_. I honestly didn’t remember a whole lot from that book save for Shiro…

“Faith!”

But I couldn’t let that happen. I needed more information, and that meant I’d need to find it somewhere. Something to jog my memory would be helpful. Maybe if I went to the library, I’d be able to find something that covered the Denarians. I’d just be able to…

“Faith Jessica Samantha Carpenter!” My mother’s voice startled me out of my musings. I looked to her. “Would you pay attention to your sister?”

I blinked and turned toward Molly, who shook her head. Oh, right. Amanda. “So, squirt, what did you want to show us?”

“Faaaaith,” Amanda whined in the tone only younger sisters manage to achieve. “Look at what I drew with Sanya!”

Amanda ran over and jumped up in the Russian’s lap. Sanya looked up with a smile, and passed the paper to the little jawa. I walked over, flanked by Molly, and simultaneously we pulled chairs out, spun them around and sat in them with the backs facing the table.

I glanced to Mom and nudged Molly. _Skirts_.

She nodded and we turned the chairs around again. Amanda giggled upon seeing us do that, and Alicia looked up from her book, a smile gracing her lips. Sanya smiled wide, and I don’t think I recalled him having dimples like that in the books, but it _had_ been a long time.

“Here!” Amanda said, turning the paper around. On it was a drawing of… something that looked like a bear and a man in a long coat with a long stick. It looked like some building was behind the man, and… Huh. The bear thing looked like it and the man were about to face off in a fight.

“So why didn’t you want to show me, squirt?” Molly asked teasingly.

“’Cause you come anyway, Molly! And I’m not squirt!” Amanda shouted out. “Daddy says I’m a princess, aren’t I Daddy?”

Dad looked into the room. “Of course, princess. All of you are my princesses.”

“Daaad…” I groaned. I was over the princess thing by the time I was _three_ , and I only put up with it for Molly’s sake. That said, Amanda made an adorable one. Smiling at her, I nodded to the drawing. “It’s very good, Amanda. Who’s the man?”

Molly shot me a look. _Really?_

I shrugged and waited for Amanda to speak. She looked a bit deep in thought for a second before she replied, “His name… His name is Bill.”

“Bill?” I asked. Wasn’t that what she was going to call Harry because of our youngest brother? I’d have to keep an eye on that.

Amanda nodded. “Bill.”

“Okay then.” I glanced at the clock. Molly and I still had some time before we needed to leave. Which was good. So I turned my attention to Sanya as Molly tried to coax Alicia out of her book. “Sanya, it’s…” Fuck, why was my breath hitching up? It was just Sanya. “It’s been a while, and you’ve been quiet.”

“I was trying to let Amanda say her piece before speaking up. And it was necessary to see which twin you were,” Sanya said, his accented voice clear and deep. “It is good to see you again, Faith.”

I smiled. The last time Sanya had come to visit was a few years before Harry had been born. Molly and I were about Alicia’s age, and we really played up the twin thing. We’d answer sentences simultaneously, finish each other’s questions, and do a lot more of the simultaneous moves than we did now. Despite my memories of my past life, Molly really was my other half here.

“Yeah, easy to tell now. I’ve got shorter hair than she does,” I said with a grin. “So, what brings the rest of the Knights to Chicago? Big monster hunt going down here?”

“I do not think I should say,” Sanya said, glancing past me to the kitchen. I followed his gaze, and I saw Mom leaving the kitchen, likely to go get the rest of my siblings. Daniel and Matthew were taking way too long this morning, and she needed to get Hope and Harry. “Your mother would not appreciate it.”

I let out a sigh, and then jumped as a plate of eggs, bacon and rice was placed in front of me.

“You still have growth to do, Faith, Molly,” Shiro interrupted kindly. “This breakfast will help give you the strength for the day. Alicia, Amanda, you are next.”

Switching to the limited amount of Japanese I could remember, I attempted to thank Shiro for the breakfast. My accent was terrible, but I’m pretty sure “Asagohan wo arigatou” was the right phrase to use, from his smile.

I still wanted to go to Japan one day. Maybe if I learned magic, I’d be able to get there without having to pay exorbitant airfare.

Molly and I ate quickly, leaving about the same amount left on the plate when we finished. The two of us were in high school while the others were in lower level schools. Ours started before theirs did, so we needed to leave.

“Nice to see you again, Shiro and Sanya. Thanks for breakfast.” Molly’s voice and my own came out in stereo, and we passed on either side of Dad as we headed toward the door, kissing his cheek. I paused for a second so I could say something more, “Good luck today, Dad. Come back safe. I’m going to the library after school today, please let Mom know.”

“Today we shall follow His plan, and I trust that He will keep us safe,” Dad said, squeezing my shoulder. “And I’ll let your mother know when to expect you. Call if you need to be out later or a ride.”

I nodded. “I will.”

Molly was waiting at the hallway after I finished talking to Dad. “So?”

“I let Dad know about the library thing,” I said as I shouldered my bag, which was significantly less bulging than my sister’s, I might add. She shouldered her own, and as I went to open the door, I passed two boys dressed in khakis and polo shirts. Why couldn’t our uniforms look like that? “Morning Danny, Mattie. Took you long enough.”

Daniel, the taller of the two and the older one, groaned. “Because you two hogged the bathroom for an hour.”

“What I’m hearing is you took forty-five minutes after we got out of the bathroom.” Molly said, with a smirk. “And you–”

“were using the other bathroom down the hall too,” I finished. “So, how is it–”

“you didn’t manage to get done before us?” Molly asked, a grin playing on her make-up-free face.

Daniel sputtered, and Matthew just shook his head. “Come on, let’s go get breakfast.”

“But…” Daniel glared at me first, then Molly. I felt a little bad for doing that, but only slightly. I hadn’t had a little brother in my first life. As much as I could annoy him, he could do the same right back to me here, but Molly and I had the upper hand.

“We need to go, Danny,” I said, dismissing him. “See you two tonight.”

Molly and I stepped out the door, and we started our walk to the school.

“So, the library?” Molly asked. “Why?”

“I’d say school project if you were anyone else,” I replied. “I need to try and research someone, and some _things_.”

We got to our bus stop and stood there, ready and waiting. Nobody else was at this stop yet, so Molly continued her questions.

“So, who then?” Molly asked. “Who and what are you researching?”

“The what’s easy, but finding valid information will be tricky. I’m going to see if the Library has anything on Dad’s monsters.” I said. “As for the who…”

“Yeah?” Molly prodded a little further, hoping to pry it out of me.

“The leader of the Denarians, Nicodemus Archleone,” I said in a hushed whisper. God help me, I was going to do it.

  



	4. Chapter Three

_What is Known 3_

In my first life, I remembered enjoying school. It tended to be full of challenges, interesting new things to do and to learn, and I was good at it. I’d done pretty well in the K-12 arena and then went for a challenge that could have been fruitless for college and grad school. It was through a combination of luck and good timing that I managed to get the job I’d had before my death, but it too challenged me.

Going to school this time around? Much less so. The only interesting classes were the foreign language, religion and programming courses that were offered. The rest were either rote memorization, easy math, or English. Of course, physical education was a thing, but I didn’t really count that as a class. It was one of the few times of day that I got to cut loose and enjoy myself. Unfortunately, we didn’t have PE until after lunch today. No, this morning was going to be sleep, sleep, and what do you know? More sleep. If the teachers called on me, I’d answer the questions and then go back to sleep. When you’d been through school once before, it made things a little easier.

“But Faith,” you might interject, “why don’t you just test out of school if you’re so bored?”

The answer to that has a lot to do with my sister. I don’t really like being all that far from Molly. Not because she needs my protection or anything, (she really doesn’t) but Molly and I... it’s hard to describe. I definitely didn’t feel anything like this for my sisters in my first life. Now I loved them, sure. I was their older brother, and I’d have done anything for them. I’d do the same for any of my younger siblings now, too. Molly was different though. She and I… in many ways, we were almost the same person, but I know she didn’t remember anything about a past life. Like I said, hard to describe. Honestly, after rereading _A Song of Ice and Fire_ through _A Storm of Swords_ , I’d almost compare us to Jaime and Cersei… only without the icky incestuous tension. Okay, maybe not quite that comparison.

Of course, at school, we weren’t always together, and Molly went a bit extreme in some of her tastes. The microskirt she’d threatened was only the tip of the iceberg.

So our school was associated with St. Mary of the Angels Catholic Church, but it wasn’t the school that was right near it. The high school was two blocks away from the church and run by some nuns assigned by the diocese. They were a bit relaxed about most things beyond us having to wear the uniform, which is how Molly got away with what she was wearing now.

After we’d boarded the bus, Molly and I had gone to the back, and taken a seat. I put my bag in the window, and Molly got herself even more ready for school. She’d made some modifications to a uniform which she kept in her bag to change into on the bus. Of course, that was putting it lightly. Molly’s uniform modifications almost seemed like a manifestation of her hatred for it. Her skirt, and the tights she wore underneath were torn up, as if someone had taken a razor to them. Her blouse and skirt weren’t in any better shape, but I could see the shape of her satin bra underneath.

“Green today?” I asked. The conservative sweater and shirt must have hidden it this morning. “I still don’t get the cutting.”

“You hate the uniform as much as I do,” Molly said as she stuffed the regular uniform into her backpack before dipping in to pull out a make-up kit and mirror.

“Yeah, I plan on burning it after graduation, but…” I gestured. It just looked uncomfortable, but then, she fit in with the goth crowd more than I wanted to.

“Mmm.” She applied her lipstick and then capped it. “Well, I like it this way.”

I raised my hands in defeat. “I didn’t say it didn’t look good. It’s just… I couldn’t wear it.”

“Not even for a cosplay?” Molly needled.

“As who, Slasher Girl, Queen of the Damned? Mom’d kill us,” I said, reaching into her make-up kit to grab some eyeliner. Sometimes my sister was a bad influence on me.

“No, Fai, let me.” Molly took the liner from my hands and turned my head toward her. Her eyes were deep blue, same as my own, and they threatened to drown out everything. She reached up to my eye to line it with the charcoal black color. I trusted her for this, but I’d need to remember to take it off before going home. “Looks good, but I think you could use a little more.”

“Just nothing too much,” I said, nudging her when her hands were away from me. “I don’t want as much as you.”

“Hey, school’s a place where we need to be different.” Molly pulled out some other makeup items and started applying. “Subtle works better for you anyway.”

“Thanks, Moll.” I sat and waited for her to finish, keeping my face still. I made facial adjustments as directed for the rest of the bus ride, and as we pulled up at St. Joseph’s, we were finished. Molly held up a mirror, and I smiled. The make-up wasn’t too caked on, and it was subtle, highlighting some features but not overtly so. Molly did a good job.

Standing, we both headed off the bus. Molly gave me a hug and we separated. The school kept us separate for most of our courses, but we shared a lunch and religion course. She had her own group of friends, and I had mine.

Sure, walking down the hallway, I probably turned some heads as I went toward homeroom, but there were only three that I actually cared about. Not that I wanted them to look at me in that way, but that they were my friends, and I wanted to hang out with them. Outside my homeroom, they were waiting. Jason, a sandy-haired somewhat athletic guy sat cross-legged across from Cecelia, a redhead. Andrew, a dark-skinned guy who reminded me a bit of Sanya, was leaning against the wall nearby, seemingly watching what Jason and Cecelia were doing, but he definitely saw me first. Jason and Cecelia were too wrapped up in their game of Magic to notice my approach. A smile played on Andrew’s lips, but he didn’t warn them.

“So, who’s winning?” I asked when I got close, and I laughed when Jason nearly dropped his hand. Cecelia was in topdeck mode.

“Looks like Cece,” Andrew said, gesturing at the board. “Jace’s at five and mana-screwed, and Cece’s got enough to overrun him next turn with her tokens.”

“I don’t know… One good wrath effect could turn the game around.” I started to move to look at Jason’s hand, but he held it away from me.

“Back off, Fai,” Jason said with only the hint of annoyance. “You’ll see when Cece does.”

“Turn zero, Jace.” I moved to lean next to Andrew. One thing I still enjoyed from my last life that happened to exist here was _Magic: The Gathering_. When I’d noticed the cards were being sold back in ’94, I _somehow_ managed to convince Dad to get me some, even a box. Mom and Dad were oddly cool with it, after I showed them the cards and the stories about good versus evil. While evil could be very evil in Magic, good by and large tended to win, good morals for a faithful household. Plus, I really liked opening booster packs.

“So, which deck this morning, Fai?” Andrew asked, and I blanched. Given the combination of feminine issues and Sa- the Knights showing up this morning, I hadn’t had the opportunity to go change out the deck I was bringing today. Guess I had to stick with an old favorite.

“Today’s an oldie but a goodie,” I said, a predatory smirk coming to my face. I might be a Carpenter, but when it came to Magic? I could be an evil, evil person. “The Hive is coming out to play.”

Andrew groaned. “Really?”

“Well, it’s either that, or I run Burn like yesterday.” I reached into my bag to pull out the deck which I’d been tuning since I was eight. It really was too bad that Slivers weren’t really a good deck competitively, no matter how hard I tried to get them to be. There just weren’t enough impactful effects, even with a well-built deck with all the duals.

“Thought you were working on a Tribal thing,” Andrew commented, and I watched Cecelia draw the card she needed to win the game that turn.

“Yeah, I still need a few cards for that. If we make it to the shop this week, I’ll see about picking them up before the tournament,” I said as I zipped up my backpack.

“If you make it to the shop?” Cecelia asked. “What’s going on?”

“We’ve got some guests from out of town this week,” I replied. “I don’t think Mom’s going to want Molly and I out on a Friday when we’ve got guests.”

“Pity about that, Fai.” Jason stood up and put his deck into his bag. “Guess I’ll just have to beat you next week.”

Unfortunately, there really wasn’t enough time to get another game of Magic going before the bell rang for class, so the four of us talked deckbuilding strategy and about the new expansion for _Arcanos_ coming out in a few weeks. I’d mentioned wanting to build a monk for that, and they gave me shit because the monk for the last edition had been such a shit class to build.

Ultimately, we had to make it into class, where I proceeded to grab a seat in the last row, against the wall. Luckily my first period class was in the same room as homeroom, and I had plenty of time to rest. The moment I sat down at the desk and my teacher started talking about Europe and the Crusades, I could feel my eyes getting heavy. I closed my eyes, only for a minute.

*****************

My eyes shot open. Clearly I should have been getting more sleep before going to work in the morning. This was embarrassing, really, and frankly quite dangerous for me and my job. Today I didn’t have much to do, really, so I figured I’d look at the news. Election coverage tended more and more to start depressing me when I looked at the mess my political party was becoming. I found it hard to believe that anyone could vote for that person, but I’d already done my part to try and prevent it. I’d just have to avoid going into the city when the end of July came around.

Ugh. I needed to switch to a better site. Ah, there we go, science information. I really enjoyed reading science articles when downtime approached. The EMDrive research seemed to be going well, albeit kind of slow. Maybe they’d actually get some results worth publishing this year so they could be peer reviewed. Maybe that was indeed the future.

I switched to the other computer to check my e-mail. Sure enough, I had an e-mail to come to my boss’s office by… Huh, as soon as possible. Pushing out from my desk, I adjusted my belt tighter and started toward the boss’s office at the end of the hall.

I nodded to the receptionist, asking, “He in?”

“He’s supposed to be. You should be able to just go right in.” The receptionist looked a bit different today, younger, perhaps maybe fifteen or so, but her silvery gray hair belied an older age. Her green eyes twinkled as she gestured toward the door.

Stepping through the door, my boss’s office seemed different than normal. Perhaps it was the way the torches lit the room’s stone walls, or it could have been the constant dripping of water in the background. While neither was truly out of place, something just seemed completely off about it. Maybe it was the guy under the water that I could barely make out in the torchlight. Whoever he was, he certainly had a good half a foot on me, and I could tell at this distance.

I approached my boss’s desk and sat down. “You wanted to see me?”

“Yes,” he said in his faintly British accent before spinning his chair to face me. The man in front of me was of average height and build and had many of the classically handsome features that silver fox middle aged men tended to have. His hair was kept short with hints of silver throughout it, and he dressed in a very nice suit. Only in place of a tie, he wore a rope tied into a noose. “How long is it you’ve been with the company now?”

“About six months now,” I said, trepidation eating at me. Surely he hadn’t found out about that little nap already? I mean, I hadn’t had an issue about falling asleep since January. He’d mentioned that it was a fireable offence back then, but he’d chosen not to write me up.

“Ah, and in the past few months, you’d managed to stay awake through your entire shift. Until today.” The man sighed elegantly. “Your work ethic has been strong, and you’ve done good consistent work. Still, today you’ve managed to fall asleep on the job. Again.”

“I know… I didn’t mean to. I just…” I trailed off, seeing him raise a hand.

“Enough, Miss Carpenter, enough,” My boss said, silencing me. “I told you before that I wanted to invest in you. I still do.”

He placed his hand on the table, and then raised it, revealing a blackened silver coin underneath it. Etched into the metal was a sigil written in angelic script. He pushed it toward me with his index finger.

“So, I’m giving you a choice, you can take my investment, or you can leave it.” The man, _Nicodemus Archleone_ , smiled widely with a vicious bite to it. The man was a crocodile the whole way through, and I swear his shadow was menacing at me.

Glancing down at the denarius, I shook my head. “I’m not taking that.”

“Such a pity, and you had such potential.” His shadow elongated, stretching and wrapping around my own. I felt pressure on my neck as the shadow twisted and warped. My breath came shallowly at first, and then it came less, and less as the pressure grew. I kept trying to breathe, but no new air was coming in, I couldn’t breathe. At all.

The world around me faded to black, and I could feel my consciousness fade away as Nicodemus choked the life out of me.


	5. Chapter Four

I pulled off the wall, gasping for air. My lungs _burned_ as air found its way into them, and I brought my hand to my chest, resting it just above my breasts. I pressed down slightly, forcing myself into reality. The world around me came back to me as I blinked my eyes and started breathing normally. God, that was just painful.

Shit. A sea of eyes stared at me from my position in the back of the classroom. Some of them seemed bemused, others worried, but the worst was the teacher, Sister Agnes, who simply just looked. Sister Agnes was an elderly woman who’d taken the Cloth sometime in the Twenties and happened to teach the world’s most boring European History course. She stood at just shy of five and a half feet tall, and had a no-nonsense attitude about her that indicated she probably wasn’t a terrible teacher back in her prime. The unfortunate thing was that she’d managed to become so set in her ways that her lectures tended to blur together.

“If you’re back with us now, Miss Carpenter, perhaps you could tell the class who was the sitting Pope at the start of the Fifth Crusade.” Wow. This was the most engaging that I’d seen Sister Agnes get with the class, and all it took was me _nearly dying in my sleep_ to get her to even attempt to make the class interesting. Luckily the textbook she’d given us was actually fairly well written, and it was actually a good read.

I just needed to remember. I held up a hand when I saw Sister Agnes start opening her mouth to either berate me or tell me the answer. “Wait, wait… I know this. Pope… Ig, no that’s not right. Pope Innocent or Honorius, no, had to be Innocent. Pope Innocent, the third, I think, Sister.”

“I see that despite appearances, you have been paying some attention, Miss Carpenter.” Sister Agnes glanced to the clock on the wall. “And we are running out of time before the next class. Homework is to read pages 88 – 107. There will be a quiz on those pages on Tuesday. Miss Carpenter, please see me before you go to your next classroom.”

The bell rang just as she said that, and everyone started packing their bags to head to second period. I put what little I’d taken from my backpack back into it and went up to Sister Agnes’s desk as the rest of the class filed out of the classroom. While I’d packed up, she’d sat down at the desk, her gradebook open. She locked eyes with me for a second, and I dipped mine reflexively. I didn’t know if I’d ever develop magic, but if I did, keeping up this habit would prevent a lot of future headaches.

“Miss Carpenter, are you unwell?” Sister Agnes’s face wrinkled up further, perhaps in worry. “You’ve fallen asleep in my class before, but given your grades on your homework and tests, I’ve let it go. You’ve not been disruptive with it before today.”

“It was a nightmare,” I said. “I’m sorry, it won’t happen again, and I’ll try to stay awake.”

“Did you…” she started to ask, and then she shook her head. “There are many things in this world that are worth having nightmares about, but if you trust in the Lord and His guidance, you will find in Him your shield.”

Growing up in a heavily faithful household this time around, I was no stranger to faith-based advice. I smiled, the appropriate response to this sort of thing. “Yes, of course, Sister.”

“And as for your punishment for disrupting the class, say a decade of the Rosary while meditating on His guidance, for both my class and in your life.” Sister Agnes closed the gradebook, and then waved me off. “Now go on, get to your next class. No need for you to be late.”

I nodded and left the classroom to head for AP Calculus. While the teacher for this course was far more engaging, the math was the equivalent of what I had taken in late Calculus 1 when I attended college in my previous life. As time went on through the class in the year, I found myself more and more doing the problems on autopilot while I was able to focus on other things. So the class was more of a cake course than history had been.

Sleeping through morning courses had been a habit of mine this year as I found I got tired far more easily, and unlike my sister, I couldn’t stomach the taste of coffee. Something I retained from my last life, I suppose. This morning though, fearing further nightmares and being well-rested despite the most recent one, I stayed awake to ponder things.

What did I remember about what Dad was going to be facing? Nicodemus surely was in town, and he had with him a few more Denarians, but I was unsure as to the exact amount. He could have had three, he could have had eight, or more. He probably also had some minions with him, as evil bad guys truly tended to. I knew what he was after: The Shroud of Turin. I couldn’t for the life of me recall what had happened to it or why the Denarians assumed it was in Chicago, but when in doubt, I’d blame Johnny Marcone.

I hadn’t met the man, and if I never met him, it would be too soon. “Gentleman” Johnny Marcone had managed to take over Chicago’s criminal underworld in the past five years. The papers started printing less and less about the Vargassi Crime Family after some event. Nobody really could determine what had happened, but the Vargassi Family lost prominence, and Marcone came into power. Johnny Marcone was better overall for crime. He had rules, structure, and despite the cops going after him, nothing seemed to stick. He had plans, and those plans involved getting the Shroud to Chicago for some reason.

That reason likely would be dealt with by Harry. From what I remembered, he liked to stick his nose into things. I’d seen it a bit when Mom got taken by the thing pretending to be Harry, after she’d bailed Dad out of jail. Hell, I’d seen it when Harry helped a eight-year-old girl find her missing twin sister who had run away. When he’d led that little girl straight to her sister who was scared, worried about anything and everything coming for her, for her family. When he’d been a shoulder to cry on for the sister who had just been overwhelmed by so much. Who had taken out the _fucking ghoul_ who had wanted to make the sister into a snack. Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden was a good man, and my sister’s crush on him made so much sense.

Harry would help with the Denarians, I was sure. There was something about a prophecy Dad had said to Shiro this morning while cooking, but Amanda had taken my attention with her drawing of Harry and… oh fucking hell. Hell’s fucking Bells, she’d drawn Ursiel’s battle form. That had to be one of the Denarians that Nicodemus had brought with him. Another was probably his daughter, whose name completely escaped me at the moment, but she sure as shit wasn’t the woman who’d replaced the secretary there. Of course, given that the dream was my subconcious’s image of Nicodemus, I doubted he even looked like that. I likely would only recognize him due to the noose around his neck and his flickering shadow.

The bell to end class jolted me out of my musings, and I looked down at my paper to find that I’d accidentally written out a Wave function and solved it for phi. Why I had started doing quantum mechanics on autopilot was beyond me; I _hated_ quantum when I took it. Sure, the concepts were great, but it had been way too theoretical for me. I much preferred practical applications.

Next was lunch, followed by three classes I fully enjoyed: PE, Computer Programming, and German. As I’d gathered up my stuff, standing outside the classroom was Andrew, the only one of my friends who also had AP Calculus. Cecelia and Jason were with Molly in precalc. A smile brushed my lips upon seeing him waiting.

“Hey Drew, hope I didn’t keep you waiting long,” I said.

“Oh no, a whole two minutes. For shame, Fai, for shame.” Andrew wrapped an arm around my shoulder, friendly, of course. We started walking toward the cafeteria. “You could have taken as many as six minutes and still not beat your worst time on waking from the patented Faith Carpenter nap, but I’m betting that has something to do with this morning.”

I leaned back against his arm a little. “Nightmare hit me in the middle of class. Couldn’t even tell you what it was about, really. It didn’t make a whole lot of sense.”

“Dreams don’t tend to. I ever tell you about the time I dreamt I was Godzilla?” he asked, eyes twinkling.

“Can’t say that you did,” I replied. “I would have pictured you as dreaming you were Urza, with that artifact deck you like running.”

“Hey, I was supporting the point of dreams and lack of sense. Give me some credit, Fai.” We turned and passed by the precalc classroom where Jason and Cecelia waited. Molly probably had gone on to the cafeteria already with her friends to grab us a table. “And the Godzilla dream definitely happened. Crushing Tokyo and everything.”

“Keep saying that, Drew, and someone will believe you.” I patted his chest lightly to console him.

“Believe what?” Cecelia asked as she stepped lock-step on my right.

“Drew says he doesn’t have a giant lizard fetish.” I said, smiling. Drew squeezed my shoulder in protest. “How was class?”

“Oh, it was okay…” Cecelia said, looking down to the right. Was her lip trembling a little?

“What she means to say is she tied Molly for the best grade in the class on the most recent test,” Jason said from Andrew’s other side. “The two of them are chugging along.”

“Nice, Cece,” Andrew said, bending forward to smile at her. He wasn’t tall enough to see her over my head; I was nearly the height I’d been in my first life. “Next time, maybe you’ll beat her, and we can tease her about it.”

“It wasn’t that big a deal. Not like I beat her counter-mill deck.” Cecelia shrugged. “This was just a math test.”

“Skill was involved either way, Cece,” I assured her. “And you’ve come really close to beating that deck before.”

The four of us made it to the cafeteria, where Molly was waiting with an extra food tray. Sitting near her were two of her friends, Glenn and Becca. Glenn was a reasonably attractive boy with eyes the color of hardwood and well-defined cheekbones. Spiked studs pierced his lower-lip and right eyebrow, and his slicked-back hair had been dyed sea green. His uniform resembled the men’s uniform for the school, but it looked like it had gotten in a fight with a lawn mower. Over his uniform, Glenn wore a leather coat whose tails dipped down below his waist. It wasn’t quite a duster, but it resembled one. Glenn was a tall young man and had a good four inches on Molly and I, and if you didn’t know him, he could be pretty intimidating.

Becca, by contrast, had the tips of her blood-red hair dyed pitch-black, and she wore pale make-up. She was a different sort of attractive than Cecelia, who had a bit of that girl next door thing working for her, no, she resembled the gothic Lolita. Her lips were dark black, and her emerald eyes twinkled ironically as she leaned uncaring in her chair. Like Molly, she’d stolen her uniform from a Freddy Krueger movie, but unlike Molly, I couldn’t see her bra. It must have been strapless, or she wasn’t wearing one. She could get away with that, given her size, but if the administration noticed, she probably would have gotten in trouble.

Becca licked her lips upon seeing my friends and I, but Glenn got out of his chair and went around the table to pull out the chair next to Molly’s, gesturing for me to sit there. I felt Andrew’s arm tense a bit, but he just laughed it off as he led me to my seat. Andrew sat down on the other side of me, while Cecelia and Jason sat across the table, next to Glenn with Cecelia in the middle. Those who hadn’t gotten a lunch already by bringing it or buying it left their bags and went to stand in line, leaving me alone with Molly and our food.

Molly nudged me and a smile played on her face. _You looked comfortable._

I moved my hair behind an ear and took a bite of the food. _No idea what you mean._ The food really wasn’t all that good that day.

“Mmm-hmm.” Molly smirked at me before taking a bite of her own food. “So, what was this about a nightmare? Jason and Cecelia seemed a bit worried about you when they came into class.”

“Oh, it was…” I looked around to see if anyone was listening in. “It probably was nothing, but I dreamed about Dad’s monsters.”

“How’d you know about that one guy’s name?” Molly asked.

“I’d heard Father Forthill talking on the phone one time, and I put two and two together.” I wasn’t exactly lying. Forthill had mentioned Nicodemus one time while on the phone with the Vatican a short while before I was to have Confession with him. He hadn’t mentioned Denarians, nor the man’s last name, but I’d known who he was talking about.

“Okay, just be careful at the library,” Molly said, her eyes locking with mine and holding. “I almost lost you once....”

“I will, don’t worry.” I clasped my hand in hers. “You won’t get rid of me that easily. Besides, it’s the library. What’s the worst that can happen, a book falls on me?”


	6. Chapter Five

After school ended that day, rather than getting on the bus with Molly, I went to the city stop. From there, it took only about fifteen minutes to get to the downtown library branch that had the best computers for what I needed to use them for. While I doubted that there would be many books on Nicodemus and his group, I didn’t need something directly about him. I needed to remember a book that I had read eighteen years ago, by my reckoning.

Upon arriving at the library, I made my way to the restroom. My first priority at this point in time was to get out of the godforsaken uniform that school plagued me with and into something more comfortably practical. Out of my backpack, I pulled the bundled up hip-hugger jeans, white blouse and canary sweater combination that was far better to lounge about in than the school uniform and stepped into the stall. Before changing into those clothes, I handled some necessary items, but it wasn’t long before I was out, dressed and putting my uniform into my backpack.

I made my way toward the computer alcove to find an empty computer. This library honestly was one of my favorites in the city. It had multiple stories with books that dated back to before the founding of the nation in some areas, and it had an extensive fiction selection that I used to lose myself in just for the fantasy alone. In a repeat of my previous life, I often came home with stacks of books to read, and Molly came home with another. The two of us shared our taste in fantasy, but she also liked reading romance fiction. I couldn’t really see the appeal, and God as my witness, if anyone brought Twilight into the Carpenter home, I was burning the book with a vengeance.

Ah, there was an open computer. I sat down at it and opened the library internet. If I were doing this at school, I’d have to use one of twenty or thirty workarounds to even get access to the address bar, and if I were at home, I’d have to wait for the modem to do its little connection thing before the AOL guy could say “Welcome,” and I’d be able to browse.

Yes. My family still used AOL over DSL or cable internet at this point. It is exactly as painful as it sounds. Fifty-six k never seemed slow in my first life when I was using it, but then when I had faster speeds later on? I had been so spoiled. Obviously, the other reason I was doing this research at the library was because I didn’t want my parents knowing I was looking into it. I brought up Google, and began my search in an attempt to jog my memory of my first life.

The first search, I decided to be blunt, and I just googled Nicodemus. The first link that came up was the Wikipedia page for Nicodemus, the Pharisee. Nicodemus had been a member of the Sanhedrin mentioned in the Gospel of John that had assisted in the burial of Jesus. I sincerely doubted that the Nicodemus that led the Denarians was one that was canonized as a Saint by the very Church that opposed him. Odds are, the man was named after him though, as the Pharisee didn’t have a listed last name.

Now, for my second google, I chose the last name, “Archleone.” Zero results. Ah, that was right, Nicodemus actively sought out most information about him and got it destroyed. I doubted that a search for the angel within his coin would pull up much either, so I logged onto the library’s card catalog instead. I needed to figure out what books I would be going through if I wanted to find out mythic information on Fallen angels and/or demons. There was no telling how accurate any of it would be, but it was possible that I’d be able to find something here in this library that could help Dad, Sanya and… Shiro.

Fuck. Shiro. If I couldn’t help here, Shiro was going to die. How the hell could I have forgotten that? Shiro was going to sacrifice himself for Harry, trading himself to be the target of Nicodemus’ curse that came from Judas’ noose. That noose… I flashed back to my dream, picturing Nicodemus with the noose around his neck. That noose had to be important somehow. I couldn’t remember exactly what it was, but there was a weakness to its ability, something that would make Nicodemus vulnerable. If I could remember that, I could let Dad, Shiro, Sanya and Harry know in order to make things easier for them.

My search brought up a list of books, and I pulled a pen and paper out of my bag to jot down their catalog numbers. My penmanship was much neater in this life, and I really wasn’t sure why that was. Ultimately, it didn’t matter, I had my book list, and I knew where to go. Well, I thought I did anyway.

Two looked to be upstairs in the Literary fiction section, and that more or less ruled them out of being of any use unless they were about faeries, which I didn’t search for. The remainder seemed to be in the basement which contained some of the older and rarer volumes. You needed special dispensation to be down there, and I went over to talk with the librarian, who, given the state of her desk and lack of technology beyond a desk lamp, I was pretty sure was a practitioner of some sort. She was a dark-haired woman, maybe in her late forties and dressed for the weather. Her hair was tied back into a ponytail that went down to about mid-back, and she was wearing a pair of reading glasses with half-moon frames. She was in decent enough shape, and she had some classically beautiful features. Of course, she was probably around the age of my mother, and she was nowhere near attractive enough to be called a MILF; so it was what it was.

She was reading from some book when I approached.

“Excuse me, Miss?” I tried to sound as apologetic and helpless as I could. The librarian looked up from her book, her reading glasses framing her brown eyes well. She didn’t lock eyes with me, which only fueled my theory about being a practitioner. “I need to find these books right here.”

I handed over the paper, and she looked at the book locations before looking back to me. “Name?”

“Faith Carpenter.” I brought out my library card and showed her.

“Miss Carpenter, you understand that these books you’re looking for cannot be checked out correct?” she asked, and I nodded. “Good. You can find them in the fifth stack in the second subbasement.”

“Thank you, Miss,” I said as I took my paper back and headed for the stairs. Second subbasement, that meant that once I got down to the basement, I’d have to cross the stacks to get to the underground staircase that went down through the first and second subbasements. There was no third subbasement, as far as I knew.

Once I was on the basement and I started to cross, I heard a faintly muffled sound that almost sounded like either a cry of pain or a cry of ecstasy. Stopping halfway through the stacks, I stilled myself and my mind, trying to focus just on what I could hear. I _listened_.

So, it turned out that one of the major things I remembered Harry Dresden being able to do in the Dresden Files had nothing to do with magic. It had everything to do with noticing what your senses were telling you. By blocking out anything and everything that was unimportant, you could focus on what was important. In this case, what I wanted to focus on was the sound I’d heard.

Down the stacks, on the other side, a thrashing body, moaning with what sounded like pain mixed with pleasure was what I heard. I also could make out the sound of… slurping and a liquid loudly being gulped down. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as my heart started to race. No, I wasn’t hearing what I was thinking I heard. I crept forward toward where the stacks broke up to divide the aisles for easier access, and I looked down the line.

Standing, facing outward toward where I would be standing as I passed, was a remarkably good looking man, about five and a half feet tall with short red hair, a black beard, and sun-darkened skin. He wore an all-black silk outfit, as if he were from some sort of Shakespearean play, maybe Macbeth. Looking at him made my skin crawl, much like looking at some of the earlier CG movies looked, the ones where they tried to make someone too perfect to be real. The uncanny valley was a real place, and looking at this man, I was standing right in it. Luckily he hadn’t noticed me yet.

As I continued listening, I could hear sniffing, followed by a scratching noise that sounded like claws on wood.

“Someone else has come. Why did you not warn us, Esteban?” A cultured Latin-American man’s voice came from behind the stack. “This could jeopardize Duke Ortega’s plans.”

… I did not like the sound of that. My fingers twitched and I could feel my heart threatening to beat out of my chest. My legs tingled as I listened. I could practically feel my body screaming at me to move, but I was still hiding.

“Two bodies are not harder to rid ourselves of than one. It is just a pity that the Velvet Room is not here to do it for us,” the man said, glancing back behind the stack. “And it should not be too hard to find her. Her blood smells quite fresh and sweet.”

His eyes turned black and wide as he sniffed the air with an ecstatic look, a glimpse of the monster underneath. There was no doubt in my mind now. I needed to run. I needed to get out of this library, and I needed to get out of here _now_. I turned back toward the stairs I’d climbed down and started toward them, but there was a person blocking my way. A tiny woman with the proportions of an adult, maybe four and a half feet tall. She was pale with freckles, long straight brown hair, and a pair of mismatched eyes, one blue and the other green. She wore a gown with long flowing sleeves and some sort of corset and robe, but she had bare feet.

“Now, you weren’t thinking of leaving before dinner, were you?” the probable vampire asked. “After all the work you’ve gone and done to prepare yourself?”

Fucking puberty. I wanted my daddy. I wanted him now.


	7. Chapter Six

I was dead, so very very dead. Dead girl walking, only not so much on the walking front as the Red Court vampire blocked my path to the stairs out. No. Fuck no. I didn’t want to die again. I wanted to live. To maybe someday possibly kinda get some sort of… Okay, that was too complicated to think about when my heart was racing at three times normal speed due to the impending doom of getting _eaten_. Daddy should be here, but I was pretty sure he was somewhere else. What would Daddy do if he found himself in this situation?

Stupid question. Okay, what would Mom do in this situation?

“Oh, how I love it when they’re afraid,” the woman in front of me said as I slowly inched backward. The being identified by the third voice as Esteban made his way toward the woman and gave her a sickeningly passionate kiss, fangs and all.

“I, uh, I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth,” I murmured, my hand reaching to the silver crucifix that hung around my neck, one of the few pieces of jewelry I consistently wore.

“Oh look, my love, she’s begging for mercy,” Esteban sneered, or at least I think he did. It was kind of hard to tell with his fangs hanging out the way they were.

“And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,” I continued, and the crucifix started heating up, warming my palm some. I gripped lower on the crucifix, lifting it out from under my sweater so it would be on display. “Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate...”

Light gleamed off of my crucifix, reflecting silvered light back at the vampires ahead of me. To either side, I knew there were more approaching, but I didn’t think there were more than four here total. Four too many, honestly.

“Do you really think that can do something to us, girl?” The woman, whatever her name was, stepped toward me, but as I prayed, the light got stronger, and I saw wisps of steam coming off her skin. She blinked, and when her eyes opened, they were pools of deep black. Esteban’s skin had started to undergo a similar effect.

“He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven,” I continued my prayer, and the light grew brighter and brighter. I wasn’t exactly sure how this was happening, but I wasn’t going to let my faith waver. This had never happened before, and I needed to keep it going if I was going to even have a chance of survival. “Is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.”

“You!” The woman’s, no, the _vampire’s_ voice was hoarse now, and seams of skin burned up. What had been wisps of steams now took on a darker tone as it became clearer what had been happening to Esteban and the other vampire.

“Esmeralda, my love, she will die for this!” Like he wasn’t going to kill me before.

“I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting! Amen!” My voice had raised, emboldened by the light coming from my crucifix. I had this burning feeling in me like my veins were filled with gasoline. A single twitch, and something could go wrong. “The power of Christ compels you, back the _fuck off_ , bitch!”

The light grew brighter, and the fluorescent lighting above me flickered. I was far more interested in holding off the two vampires who _still_ blocked the doorway to upstairs. Each of their skin had torn asunder, revealing the things they were underneath: slimy bat-like creatures with bloated bellies, indicating that they’d fed recently and they wanted to do so again.

The one that I was pretty sure had been Esmeralda growled. “You’re already bleeding! Julio, Jose, Stefan, feed on her!”

I glanced away from the pair in front of me for a second, my eyes flicking to the shelves and the ceiling. Sure enough, I counted three more Red Court vampires sans flesh mask. If I hadn’t been trying to actively hold them off, I probably would have gotten sick from looking at them.

Of course, glancing away from Esmeralda and Esteban, that had been a mistake. When I looked back, they were on all fours, charging me, and the other three leaped from their positions to attack as well.

Something in me… _sparked_. The world slowed down around me, and the light above me shattered, slowly giving off a shower of glass and glowing electrical embers that stuck mid-air, soundless. The three vampires that had been leaping at me through the air, paused, mid-flight like they were hung there on the air. Esmeralda and Esteban oozed toward me on all-fours at slug-like speeds, though clearly they were trying for faster. Whatever this was, now was my chance.

With Esmeralda and Esteban still blocking the doorway to the upward stairs, I didn’t want to risk trying to go by them in case whatever this was wore off. Instead I ran in the opposite direction, at my top speed. I needed to be as far from these vampires as I could be. I popped open the subbasement staircase, noting that it seemed to freeze in place when I got it opened all the way, and I dashed down the stairs. The lights nearby shattered as I passed, and I continued down the stairs. One flight, two flights… this should have been the bottom; I remembered there only being two subbasements to this building, but there was a third flight, and I wanted to put as much distance between me and them as possible, so further down I went.

I came to a landing at the bottom of the stairwell, and I saw the outline of what looked to be a door of some sort, set into the wall such that it was flush. I’m honestly not sure how I managed to notice it, but I chalked it up to whatever was going on with the slowed time. I placed my hand against it, and once my hand brushed it, a spark leaped from my hand onto the door, causing what looked like a magical circle to appear in glowing purple light. The door moved inward, while my hand was on it, and I stepped through the doorway.

Releasing my hold on the door, I looked around the room underneath, noting its pitch-black darkness, unable to make out anything beyond what looked like a writing desk… and was that a stuffed raven above the desk?

The door slammed shut behind me, and I could feel whatever effect had been going on end. With the door closed, there wasn’t any light to even attempt to see anything in here, but I was reasonably confident that it would be hard for the vampires to get me in here. Breathing a sigh of relief, I did the only logical thing I could as I happened upon an empty trash can, or at least I hoped that was what it was.

I evacuated the contents of my stomach. Violently.

*******************

The relief that the closed door had brought was counteracted primarily by my bodily functions once I found the wastebasket. I didn’t know if the Reds could breach the door, and while I was fairly certain I could focus my belief and faith well enough to hold them off if necessary through that single opening, I had absolutely no clue how I’d manage to get them away so I could get home. Additionally, I didn’t have a cell phone; I’d had change to use a pay phone, but given my current situation, that seemed like an unlikely proposition.

My eyes struggled to adjust to the dark of the room. There wasn’t any ambient light for my pupils to grab onto; it had been a combination of luck and observation from the open door to allow me to find the wastebasket. I felt along the wall for a light switch, remaining as silent as I could. The Reds were almost certainly still out there, and whatever had happened in that room had worn off.

No light switch. Okay, that was fine. My heart was pounding loud enough that I could hear it in my chest, but that was fine. I’d improvise. I moved my backpack off my back and into my arms, unzipping it. I dug around in the bag for a bit before my hands grasped what I was looking for. I pulled a little pink Bic lighter out of my backpack that I kept around for… various reasons. I wasn’t a smoker, per se, but some of my friends were; it helped to be a person with a lighter sometimes.

Giving mental thanks to my friends and their sometimes illicit activities, I flicked the lighter, managing a couple sparks. Okay, so my hands were still shaking. Wobbling from what had happened. Those five Red Court vampires had killed someone and they were going to come here to kill me. They’d nearly done so already, and I’d only escaped due to a sudden change in the way time worked. Or a sudden burst of superspeed, but whatever it was, I had escaped into an area I was trapped in, with no freaking light because the lighter didn’t want to work the first time.

So I tried again, holding my hand steady this time. I flicked my Bic, and as the wheel turned, the sparks ignited the gas coming out when I pushed the button, giving me a small flame. I held the flame above my head, and I noticed a three-pronged candelabra on the writing desk with three half-length white candles. I made my way over to the writing desk, still in silence.

Maybe they were searching the other floors for me first. Did they split up to do so? Or were they together, searching for any sign of me, sign of my scent? Did I move fast enough that my scent didn’t leave a trail from my blood? Was the seal on the door enough to stop them?

I didn’t have enough answers, so, flicking my Bic again, I lit the three candles of the candelabra, and I looked around. The light reflected off of the darkened eyes of the stuffed raven that hung above the writing desk, which itself had numerous papers strewn about. A bookshelf embedded into the wall held more, papers, scrolls, even a few books. Looking around the room, I could see a simple cot, the wastebasket I released my lunch into, and more shelves with papers that bore the brownish yellow tinge of age. Some looked like maps, perhaps, but I couldn’t tell of what from the angle and light.

On the floor glinted a silver ring, just five feet from the door. A magic circle, perhaps? Someone had set up a permanent circle in this room, but for what? It didn’t look like this was anyone’s magic lab. I moved to look over the papers, still listening for anything to indicate that Esteban, Esmeralda, and their trio of minions had found the door yet, and I noted what was front and center.

Whoever this room belonged to had been drafting a letter. They hadn’t mailed it off or dated it yet, clearly, but the inkwell they had been using had yet to dry, indicating they had been working on it today. Yes, they had used an inkwell and dip pen. I think someone had been reading a bit too much Harry Potter. I began to read the letter.

 

> _Mr. Peabody,_
> 
> _If you would convey to the Merlin and the rest of the Senior Council that what we have found buried in this city’s tunnels is nothing short of remarkable. This ritual book, if used in the correct hands, could prove invaluable in the war against the Red Court, but if traditional White Council methods were to be used with this ritual book, it could negate all significance of the find._
> 
> _The being referenced in this ritual book is a complete unknown, but initial contacts with it seem to be mostly positive. Ja’re’be’wo’kay is a benevolent being who can bestow power upon those who call upon it and would allow the easy defeat of the vampires by the Council with the aid of us, its ally. If standard procedure for this book were to happen, Ja’re’be’wo’kay would be stretched thin eventually, and perhaps it would be unable to perform the duties of the ritual. While we here at the Venatori Umbrorum understand this need when it comes to rituals that would break the Laws of Magic simply by their use, I must stress that this ritual is different._
> 
> _Please consider my offer and send a representative of the Council to Chicago to meet with me. I would love to show this book to an interested wizard._
> 
> _Janice Alexander,_  
>  Venator Segundus  
>  Venatori Umbrorum  
>  Chicago Branch

  


Oh. That… was… special. Now I knew what the Reds were probably after, and I had no clue if they had managed to get ahold of it yet. I folded up the letter and stuffed it into my backpack. The name Peabody sounded familiar to me, but I couldn’t place why it was significant. Regardless, it wouldn’t do to leave this letter just sitting there with the information it contained. If I could find this ritual book, it would probably be a good idea for it to just get lost, but if the Reds had it… No, I couldn’t think like that.

I sighed, and lightly hit the desk with my hand. A book tipped down from up above, its weight overwhelming it as it came tumbling down at me. I don’t know why, but I didn’t move as the book fell and struck me on the top of my head before bouncing down onto the desk. Glancing at the book, I bit my lower lip. That had been remarkably convenient, which meant that the book might have been more than it should have been, but it was innocuous, the size of a young adult novel if I were to be honest if not for its darkened leather cover.

I reached into my bag and pulled out a book that was around the same size, pulling the jacket off of it and stuffing it back into my bag. I slipped the jacket over the leather-bound book and placed it too in my bag.

A loud banging against the door caused me to jump slightly and reach for my crucifix. The vampires wouldn’t take me if I could avoid it. I looked around the room for something I could use as an improvised sword or weapon to keep them at bay in a combination of faith and steel, but nothing was available.

The door banged again, this time followed by a voice. “Miss, I know you’re in there.” The voice was male, not too deep, and it carried a tone of… something I couldn’t put my finger on. This wasn’t one of the Red Court vampires. “If you could please open the door, I could help you.”

I wasn’t sure that he couldn’t just break down the door himself, but I didn’t know who or what was out there. I was pretty sure that the Reds would just try breaking down the door, but this person had simply just knocked.

“How?” My voice must have sounded strained; I know I felt it. “How could you help? Who are you?”

With what sounded clearly like an exaggerated sigh, the man on the other side of the door answered me. “My name is Thomas Raith. Come with me if you want to live.”

  



	8. Chapter Seven

Thomas Raith, now that was a name I definitely recognized. Around the time my youngest brother was born, Daddy had been helping Harry out with a ghost problem, and the two of them met Thomas at the Velvet Room where they’d attended a party hosted by the Red Court vampire, Bianca. Thomas had been another guest of Bianca, representing the Raith family and the rest of the White Court in his father’s place. Through some events that were most definitely not the fault of either my father or Harry, the Velvet Room had burned down, and Thomas had been inclined to help them. Daddy went with Harry and Thomas into the fairy world of the Nevernever, and Thomas had helped Daddy leave. Into a strip club. Mom was not happy when she found out about that one.

Additionally, Thomas Raith had a few more things to him that I _hadn’t_ found out by eavesdropping on my parents when they argued. One. He was Harry Dresden’s brother. Two. He was completely and utterly in love with a girl by the name of Justine. She kept him human, and overall she kept him a good person, but he was still a _vampire_. He might not have been like the Reds out there, but he still was a monster… had a monster. So the question became, should I trust him? Could he genuinely get me out alive? I didn’t have an answer to that question.

“ _Lord, please guide your servant in her choice. Keep me safe,”_ I whispered out a prayer before grabbing my crucifix once more. If there were any Reds out there, I wasn’t going to let them get into the room with me. I’d be able to deal with Thomas, one way or the other, but the Reds would be a problem. “Okay, Mr. Thomas Raith, I’m going to open the door.”

Once I figured out how, I supposed. The door through which I came didn’t have an immediately obvious handle, nor did it have any obvious seams. I really had no clue as to how I opened it the first time, other than simply touching it. So that’s what I did, running my hand along the door to try and find a handle to pull with. What I found instead was a circle of some sort of metal embedded in the door. Pushing at it did nothing, and I couldn’t get enough of a grip on it to use it as a handle. Of course, looking at the door, I doubted that I could pull this open on my own without some sort of… That’s it! If I could just… remember… yes. Okay, circles. Magic circles were used for a variety of reasons, but the primary one was to keep energy out. Most everyone could use a circle of some sort, all they required was an investment of will. So maybe that was how to get this door open. If this didn’t work, I was going to feel pretty stupid.

“Gathering one’s will” always seemed like a cliché statement when I read it in literature. Steeling yourself was another. It really didn’t seem to reflect reality to me. How could you gather up something that you either had or you didn’t? Of course, I didn’t realize exactly what it had meant or that I’d done something similar. Forcing all distractions out of mind, forcing myself to focus just on the task at hand, activating the circle. I touched the metal with my right hand and gave a mental push, and I felt a jolt. The circle lit up green and the arcane designs within it started spinning like the interior of a clock. I stepped backward at the sound of stone on stone, and brandished my cross, using it to focus my faith, fully prepared for anything that might be waiting outside.

“Finally, you let me in.” I wasn’t quite prepared for the man who stepped inside once I opened the door. The man, I assumed, must have been Thomas Raith, for who else could he have been? His dark hair came down to his shoulders, framing his way too perfect face. From his dark blue-grey eyes, perfect lips, and high cheekbones to his perfectly white teeth, fucking hell. That man could turn a lesbian straight. His body wasn’t terrible to look at either, with a body likened to that of a Greek god or demigod. “Yes, I know. No need to thank me for offering to save you.”

Was I drooling? I couldn’t have been, but just in case, I wiped at my lips. Thomas Raith was a White Court vampire; I needed to remember that. He was biologically designed to be sexy. Stupid. Sexy. Vampire. Fucking hell. I needed to function. “So, how are you going to get me out of here?”

He looked around the room some, looking over each shelf in turn before concentrating on me. “… Well, I was expecting you to be older. Still, getting you out is easy. I’ll just say you’re mine.”

“Yours?” I asked, not entirely sure I understood what he was saying. _Focus, Faith_.

“Yeah. My prey, not to be touched by Red Court. Of course, I’ll be letting you free afterward. I just need you to trust me,” Thomas said, looking at me up and down. I shivered slightly at his look. He shook his head slightly. “They wouldn’t risk a fight with my father over a mere human girl. What’s your name, anyway?”

“Faith. C-Carpenter.” My name slipped out before I could even think of giving a fake. Was he… “Stop that!”

“Stop what?” Thomas’s eyes remained that bluish grey. “… You wouldn’t happen to be related to a _Michael_ Carpenter, would you?”

“St-Never mind… My father,” I answered. I’d have to deal with it. He was Harry’s brother. He wouldn’t harm me. I needed to trust that. Underneath his façade, he was a good person.

“Right.” Thomas grimaced, sexily. Damnit, did this man only do things in a sexy fashion? Gah. White Court. That had to be the reason I found him attractive. He looked around the room once more, walking over to the writing desk and lifting the raven off of it. His grimace deepened and he turned back to me. “Let’s get you out of here and back to your family.”

Thomas offered a hand to me, and I took it, ignoring the flip-flopping of my belly when I held onto the vampire’s hand. I needed to keep reminding myself that Thomas was a vampire. He was too supernaturally good looking to be anything else. “Okay, but, why are you here, really?”

“I’m getting you out, Faith.” Thomas squeezed my hand, and damnit if my heart didn’t skip a beat. Stupid sexy vampire. Giving another glance at the room, he led me out without answering my question. I’ll admit I clung to him a bit, wrapping my other arm around his. While he wasn’t quite as tall as Harry, he did remind me of him, in the shape of his eyes and his jaw. I suppose if I didn’t know he was related, I probably wouldn’t have noticed, but there were things you remembered about how people look when certain events happen. I don’t think I’ll ever forget Harry’s face.

As the two of us stepped out into the hallway, I noticed three shapes lying on the stairs. They laid unmoving, torn asunder by … something. As we got closer to them, it became obvious to me that they had been three of the Red Court vampires. I couldn’t tell what had caused the wounds on their bodies, nor did I really want to know. They were dead, that was good enough for me, but only three were. Where were the last two?

“Well, isn’t that a shame?” Thomas asked sardonically. “Someone’s going to have to clean that up.”

Giggling nervously, I let Thomas lead a bit more. We carefully stepped around the bodies and made our way up to the primary basement, which we needed to cross before we could make it up to the actual library. We made it about halfway across the level toward the staircase when Esteban stepped out in front of us, having regained his flesh mask. I stiffened and looked back behind. Sure enough, Esmeralda had flanked the two of us.

“Well, if it isn’t Thomas Raith,” Esteban said in a taunting tone. “You are holding something that belongs to me and my wife.”

“Yes, give the little bitch up, Raith,” Esmeralda growled. “She caused the death of three of ours.”

“She is _mine_ , Batiste.” Thomas said, his voice level. “My prey; your fools killed themselves. I saw their bodies. There’s no way this girl of mine did anything of the sort.”

Esmeralda sneered, and I moved my hand from Thomas’s arm to my crucifix. I wasn’t going to let them do anything to me, but I needed to trust Thomas. “Your prey? I’m going to need more proof than that, Raith. You might be Duke Ortega’s Second, but we’ve heard stories.”

Proof? What sort of proof might they be wanting? Would Thomas give in?

“I don’t need to prove anything, Batiste. We’re going to walk out of here, and you’re going to leave it be and collect your dead.” Wow. Thomas’s sternness could be- Gah. Stupid sexy vampire.

“No, I do not think you shall, just yet,” Esteban said, looking me over. “We will let you go, after two things happen, in payment for our dead. One. You must prove she is your prey. Feed upon her. And then she must allow Esmeralda and myself to feed upon her as well. “

“What?” I asked sharply, but when Thomas looked at me, I settled down somewhat. I didn’t like this, but they had us surrounded, and I wasn’t confident that I could do anything to help take this pair down.

“I need your word, Batiste.” Thomas stared Esteban down, while I nervously looked at Esmeralda. Fuck. How much did I trust Thomas? How much could I trust him? Could I make a break for it and get home before any of this went to shit? Not unless I could pull a repeat of earlier, and I had no clue how I did that.

“Very well, I give it,” Esteban said.

“I as well.” Esmeralda slinked around from behind us to join her husband in front, still blocking our way.

I looked up at Thomas. I _really_ didn’t want to do this, but I wasn’t Harry. I didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. Thomas didn’t look like he wanted to do this either, a fact confirmed by what he mouthed as his eyes took on a silver tone.

“ _I’m sorry_.”

* * *

The conditions set by the Eebs were terrible to think about. They required me to get fed upon by two different kinds of vampire, and then they’d let us walk out alive. I prayed for help, for guidance, and this is what my decision to trust Thomas, a vampire, had wrought. Just because he was Harry’s brother, and honestly was a pretty awesome character in my memory of him, didn’t mean that the sexy vampire was going to be how I remembered.

“Look, she’s trembling. Is it anticipation, or is it fear, Raith? Either way, we get what we want,” Esteban taunted, as Thomas continued to look down at me with his increasingly silver eyes. He hadn’t started yet, but I almost could feel his Hunger. I didn’t know how long it had been since he’d last fed on Justine, but it ultimately didn’t matter. He was going to try to feed on me. He was going to feed on me, and I wasn’t entirely sure that there was a way out of this situation.

I looked up at his face, focusing on his eyes. He’d moved so that his back was to the Eebs, using his body to block mine, so I mouthed out the words to him that would hopefully change his mind. I would hopefully get through to him to get me out of here properly. “What would Harry do?”

Four words. Four simple words, and if Thomas wasn’t too far gone, he’d get them. The vampire cupped my chin, tilting my head up toward his, and his lips twitched into a smirk. I shivered, uncontrollably, that wasn’t... he hadn’t started feeding yet, I could feel it, but the smirk meant something. I knew in my heart that it meant my trust hadn’t been in vain. Thomas was Harry’s brother, and he wanted to be a better man for him and for Justine. Thomas had a plan. I just needed to trust that whatever it was, it would get me out safe.

Thomas continued cupping my chin, and I parted my mouth slightly. I knew that this probably was a part of the plan, but I still feared it.

Then I felt it. In that moment, I knew why the White Court had been so successful throughout the years, and the Raiths specifically. I knew why Thomas would have such a successful business as a hairdresser later on. I knew why the Raiths were able to get their victims to come seemingly willingly. For the briefest of moments, I felt a taste of what Thomas had to offer, and I felt him partaking of a taste of my own. Just a taste, ever so slight. I could feel it, and at that moment, I would have given him more. Freely. Intellectually, I knew. I _knew_ what was going on, but I just didn’t care. I could care later, I just wanted more of that feeling. I’m sure I made a noise or two, but I couldn’t tell you what they were.

But as quickly as it began, it stopped, and damn if it lasted more than a few seconds. Those few seconds had felt like an eternity. Part of me, I’m ashamed to say, wanted to continue. To let Thomas have every single way with me that he could, but the rest of me knew. The vampire could have done more. He could have taken more. He didn’t. That made him trustworthy.

“There.” Thomas’s eyes still held that silver sheen as he looked back at the Eebs. His skin perhaps was a bit whiter too. “I’ve fed on her, but… I think we’ll forego you feeding directly upon her, Batiste.”

“The deal was for the three of us to feed, Raith,” Esteban growled out.

“Yes, the bitch is…”

“Not your prey. She is _mine_ , Batiste. If you try to take her from me, I will inform Ortega of your dereliction of duties when I meet up with him later tonight. After all, he doesn’t know you’re here,” Thomas said, running a hand through my hair before going into his pocket. “I am not, however, an oathbreaker. You will get a taste of her blood, but you will not be biting.”

Thomas produced a knife and handed it to me. I reached into my backpack with my other hand and pulled out a small cup that I tended to use for water.

“Cut your hand, and bleed into the cup for them,” Thomas ordered. I nodded, acting the part of demure prey, a person already broken by the White Court. This wasn’t exactly the plan that I’d hoped the vampire had wanted, but given the situation, and its precariousness, I admired this way out of having the Red Court’s Kiss in my system.

I cut my right hand at my right ring finger. In this life, I was a leftie for some reason, and I squeezed the finger, draining some drops of blood into the cup. I handed the cup to Thomas, but I kept the knife in my hand.

“There now,” Thomas said as he placed the cup on a nearby shelf. “You get to feed of her, and we get to go free. As promised, or perhaps, you can test just how much those stories you’ve heard are true.”

Esmeralda looked like she was ready to attack, but her husband placed a hand on her shoulder before walking over to the cup and picking it up. He looked inside. “The deal was that we both could feed, Raith.”

“Share,” Thomas and I said in unison as we pushed past them to the stairs that led to the lobby. We didn’t stop walking until we made it out into the parking lot.

Once we made it into the parking lot, I let go of Thomas’s hand, and I looked around. “Looks like they followed their word. For now.”

“Yes, they did and—” Thomas was cut off by my right cross across his jaw.

“You asshole!” I yelled at the vampire. “What was that in there? That was your big plan to get me out safe? That was how you were going to protect me? If I hadn’t mentioned Harry’s name, would you have let them feed off of me?”

Okay, my hand hurt a little bit from hitting him, but no worse than any other guy I’d managed to need to hit over the past few years. It didn’t look like it hurt him much so much as just a surprise.

“Of course not!” Thomas retorted, rubbing at his jaw. That had to be something to assuage my ego, and it did a little. “What do you think your father would do to me if I let you get hurt? That’s why I only fed a little bit.”

I took a deep breath. Okay. Thomas did what he could. Because of my father. Because of his brother. Because of Justine, probably.

A car door opened, and a pair of stiletto heels touched the ground, walking around the car to the area of the parking lot we were in. My gaze was drawn to the dark-haired beauty that was in them. She wore a tight miniskirt and a _very_ low cut blouse. Her face was made up with a delicate pink blush, and her lips were a vibrant red. Her eyes were a bit clouded over, but not by much. She clearly walked with purpose toward Thomas and I. It quickly became obvious to me who she was, which made it funny when she walked past Thomas’s open arms toward me.

“Come on, let’s get you in the car,” the woman said. “You can yell at Thomas more while we’re on the road.”

“Now that’s not fair,” Thomas complained. He followed us into the car though. It was a red Lamborghini Murciélago, expensive car, and I sat in the passenger seat with the dark-haired woman to my left and Thomas in the driver’s seat. He ran a hand down the woman’s exposed back and she shivered, leaning into him.

“My name is Justine,” the woman said, after finishing her minor trip off of Thomas’s touch. A part of me almost was jealous, but my anger and the beginnings of a headache shut that up. “I’m sorry that he got you angry.”

“It’s… not really his fault, Justine.” I sighed and rubbed my temples. “He saved my life. I don’t know how I would have gotten out on my own.”

Thomas drove out of the library and onto the streets. “Where do you live, Faith?

I gave him the address, and I asked to be dropped off at the bus stop so I could look like I was coming home from that. Then his cell phone rang, and he answered it. It was a flip phone of some sort. Looked like a Nokia model.

“No, I didn’t find it,” Thomas said when he answered the phone, not even bothering to say hi. “Some Reds were there, and it looked like they had been looking too.”

Thomas listened for a second, and I turned to Justine. “Who is he talking with?”

“His sister, I think,” Justine said. “She called earlier today, and he’s been in a foul mood since. He’s even putting me up at a hotel tonight rather than spending it with me.”

“Rough.” There was only one sister I could think of that’d have Thomas that out of shape over a phone call. Lara Raith, his elder sister and retired porn star. I just wished I could remember her stage name. For academic purposes, of course. I needed to know what she looked like, after all.

“Fine. Ten minutes,” Thomas said into the phone before turning the car into a hard right and then his phone sparked. The screen went dead, and he looked at it. “Damn. Going to need a new phone. Faith, I’m sorry, but I can’t take you straight home.”

“Why not?” I asked.

“We’ve got to meet someone for dinner,” Thomas said, “I’ll treat you.”

“We? Who are _we_ meeting?” I asked.

Thomas’s answer sent a chill down my spine. “The Archive.”

  



	9. Chapter Eight

We pulled up into a restaurant parking lot, and my eyes widened. This wasn’t exactly the sort of place that I pictured Thomas eating at pre-living with Harry, but it was definitely the sort of place I could see the Archive eating at. Personally, I really enjoyed the food at this restaurant, both in my first life and now. I’m really not sure whether I preferred it better then or now, but it had been a few months and one hell of a day. Thomas said he’d pay for my food so I’d take advantage of his oh so kind generosity. Assuming I could eat. Assuming that this headache wasn’t going to get much worse than it was. Assuming that the Archive didn’t kill me on the spot for knowing… Ivy. Her name is Ivy.

The restaurant was an Italian-style pizzeria with a very rustic feel to it. They served all sorts of dishes ranging from pizza to standard Italian fare like spaghetti or fettuccinie alfredo, but the thing that this restaurant was most famous for was its Chicago-style stuffed deep dish pizza. This pizza took half an hour to bake due to how thick it was. A person I’d known a while ago described this pizza as a savory fruit pie. He wasn’t entirely wrong. The pizza had a thin crust layer that lined the bottom, a thicker cheese layer that had all of the toppings within it, another thin crust layer, and then the sauce on top. It made a divine pizza taste, and whenever we went here with the whole family, everyone left satisfied. I really enjoyed Giordano’s, and despite my impending headache, I was actually happy to be there.

Thomas entered the restaurant first, but he held the door for Justine and I. I hadn’t been to this particular Giordano’s before, but it reminded me of the branch they had near Disney World in Orlando. It was built to seat maybe two hundred people. Some areas had raised dining tables; others were likely once a smoking section before smoking was banned in restaurants. The bar stood prominently in the middle of the establishment, and I could see some entrances to private rooms.

Thomas approached the hostess when we were all inside. “Three, and we’re meeting with two more. They might already be here…”

“A blond man and his daughter?” the hostess asked, clearly trying not to stare at Thomas’s perfectly white teeth.

Thomas nodded. “That sounds like them.”

“It looks like they reserved the VIP room for you. Please follow me this way.” The hostess started to lead the three of us away.

“Actually,” I said before we got too far, “I need to freshen up. I’ll meet you in the room.”

Thomas looked like he wanted to say something, but Justine spoke up, “I’ll join you. I need to get ready as well.”

“The restroom is down that hall,” the hostess directed, and Justine and I followed down that way.

I slipped into a stall when we got in there and breathed a sigh of relief. I hated this part of puberty, but it seemed one good thing had definitely come out of the day. This month was done, and I’d have a few weeks of peace. Unfortunately, my headache still was there. I popped a couple painkillers that I had in my backpack, and headed out to the sink, where Justine stood waiting. She looked far more alert than she had earlier, and I wasn’t sure whether that was because of Thomas or not.

“Faith… I have some things I would like to ask you.” Justine pulled a bandage out of her purse and reached for my hand. I gave it to her, no point in fighting this. “I only heard some of what you were yelling at Thomas about, and I wanted to clarify a few things.”

“Oh?” I winced slightly as she ran my hand under water to wash the cut I’d given myself. I wish I’d been able to avoid giving the Eebs my blood, but desperate measures are taken when you don’t have much other choice. I still had Thomas’s knife up my left sleeve.

“You mentioned Harry Dresden’s name to Thomas in hopes that it would mean something to him, or am I wrong?” Justine asked as she started to wrap the bandage around my finger.

“Yes, I mentioned it to him before he…” I trailed off, but Justine nodded.

“How do you know the wizard?” Justine patted my hand.

“He and my father work together sometimes. I’d say he’s a friend of the family, but Mom doesn’t really like him much, even after what he did for Molly and I.” I shuddered a bit at that memory. Fucking ghoul. I looked forward to the day I could deal with ghouls without having to run away. “And I remember Daddy telling Mom about that last time with Harry and how he ended up in a strip club thanks to Thomas.”

“Your father would be Michael Carpenter, then?” Justine asked. “So you assumed that from one meeting with Dresden that mentioning Harry’s name would help you? No. You know more.”

I looked around the bathroom.

“We’re the only ones in here, Faith. Please, tell me what you know.” Justine was _good_ at this. I suppose she had to be, given the appearances she had to put up for the Whites.

“Thomas is Harry’s older brother,” I replied. “It’s obvious if you know what to look for.”

“Please, don’t tell Harry,” Justine pleaded. “Thomas wants to tell him on his own time, when he can prove it to him.”

I nodded. “Okay. You aren’t going to ask how I know?”

“How else?” Justine asked rhetorically. “Magic. Now, I guess we should get back.”

I nodded, and after washing most of the make-up off my face, the two of us headed toward the VIP room. Admittedly, I didn’t know exactly where the room was, but judging from the person who stood outside the room ahead of us, it was quite likely that the room was there. The man outside was taller than Thomas but not quite as tall as Harry, but he was very solidly built with linebacker shoulders. The loose black jacket he wore fit tightly on his upper arms. He wore a green shirt and stood so that whatever he was packing wasn’t immediately visible. He wore a black ball cap that reined in his dark golden hair which without it might have fallen to his shoulders. From the scruff on his face, it was obvious he hadn’t shaved in a few days, and I could see a white scar on his chin. His eyes were a grey-blue, and he was practically devoid of emotion. This man was dangerous, and if my memories were correct, he was the Archive’s bodyguard and driver.

“Faith and Justine, I assume.” The man held up a hand as we approached. “Going to have to wait a few minutes. Raith and the Archive need to speak alone.”

Justine frowned, asking, “And who are you?”

“I’m Kincaid.” He gestured toward the door. “And for a few more minutes, you aren’t getting in there.”

“That’s okay,” I said, as I looked around where we were and smiled, despite my headache. “I think I can occupy myself.”

I left Justine with Kincaid and made my way to the arcade claw machine that the management had set up nearby. I reached into my backpack, pulled out my wallet, and retrieved some cash. I fed the machine the money and started to play. So claw machines were a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine, and I couldn’t help but waste some money trying to win at them. I usually managed something nice within a few games, but each claw machine was different. This one apparently had a rather weak claw, as evidenced by the fact that the damn grabby thing wouldn’t grip hard enough to even try pulling what I was targeting up. It really annoyed me when that happened, and I knew how the machines worked. Eventually, it would use enough grip strength to grab, and eventually, after spending enough cash, I’d be able to get it.

Damn. Dropped again. Gah, this was frustrating. I just needed… I would get that damn stuffed animal. Push button. Move claw. Focus, Faith. The claw was over the stuffed otter that I was going for. I _would_ get it. Push the button again to cause the claw to drop. The claw dropped down, closing over the otter’s head and started to lift it, but it wouldn’t be enough. I growled out in frustration and mentally shoved, miming the movement I wanted with my hand. The claw wobbled slightly, and the otter threatened to move again.

“No… don’t you dare drop.” I continued my miming… and the claw wobbled more as it made its way over the chute. “Now you can drop.”

I lowered my hands, and the claw opened, depositing its payload into the toy chute. Then the light on the machine flickered off, and the dollar feeder started spitting out cash. I blanched. That shouldn’t have happened. I went to go get one of the wait staff after I pulled out my prize.

“Excuse me, I think the claw machine’s broken. It’s spitting out all the money it has in it,” I said to a waitress who had nothing in her hands.

“What?” The waitress asked incredulously, and as I started to respond, she held up a hand. “No, I’ve got it… go back to your table.”

I nodded and headed back to Justine and Kincaid. The latter of which was looking a little too hard at me for my liking. He looked at his watch as I approached, clutching that stuffed otter under my arm. “Okay, that’s the right amount of time. Let’s go in.”

Kincaid opened the door to reveal Thomas sitting at a table with what appeared to be an adorable seven-year-old girl. Her blonde hair, still very fine and straight, was clipped neatly at her shoulders and held back with a pink hairband. She wore a corduroy dress with a blue blouse, but I couldn’t see her feet as the tablecloth blocked them. Heck, I probably wouldn’t be able to see her if not for the booster seat that she was in. She reminded me of Amanda in age, but my younger sister didn’t have the air of maturity or the power that this girl did. This was Ivy, the Archive.

Thomas got up and went to help Justine to the table. I simply went and sat down in the chair next to Ivy, like I would with my younger sister.

Ivy turned her head toward Thomas, who was helping Justine, and said in a faint British accent, “Mister Raith, if you please, I would like to speak with Miss Carpenter alone for five minutes. Kincaid, if you wouldn’t mind ordering drinks for us, I would appreciate it. Water for me, and…”

“Diet Coke for me,” I answered, looking apprehensively at Ivy. What possible reason could she have to want to talk to me alone? I wasn’t dueling anyone tomorrow or the next day. Ideally, I wasn’t dueling anyone ever. Of course, I knew the world wouldn’t let it stay that way, but a girl could dream, right?

Kincaid nodded. “Five minutes then. Come on, Raith, Justine.”

Thomas grimaced, but he led Justine out of the room. I followed the three with my eyes until the door shut, and then I turned toward the Archive.

“He tries to be a good man,” Ivy said as she watched them leave. I wasn’t sure whether she was talking about Thomas or Kincaid; perhaps she was talking about both. Both had monstrous secrets, if I remembered Kincaid well, which admittedly is something I wasn’t entirely sure I did.

“So, why am I here?” I asked bluntly. Rather than dancing around the question, which my headache really didn’t help with, I needed to know. Now, if possible.

“I wanted to speak to you, Miss Carpenter,” Ivy said. “To speak with someone so similar to myself, albeit in a different fashion. Do the dreams still haunt you? The knowledge of what is to come?”

“You… Of course you know,” I said, shaking my head. “I wrote that down years ago, and when I realized what it could mean, I got rid of everything… But I didn’t remember much. I haven’t been able to change much of anything.”

“Yet, Miss Carpenter, yet,” Ivy said. “You are here with me tonight, and that is a change.”

“Please, call me Faith. It makes me feel weird hearing someone so close to my age use my last name like that,” I said before addressing the topic at hand. “I don’t know if I _can_ , change anything, I— what do you call yourself?”

“I am the Archive,” she said simply, and I winced. I almost used the name she’d be given by Harry, and I think whatever I wrote down referenced her by that name rather than as what she was. Maybe she hadn’t figured out that Ivy referred to her yet, but it was possible that she did. I don’t even remember what I wrote down about her, other than what might happen in a few years if it can’t be prevented. She wasn’t exactly a character in the books that appeared all that often.

Grimacing, I nodded. “I still get dreams sometimes, of what happened before, of what might be coming. I want to protect my family from it.”

Ivy nodded. “In the end, whatever happens will happen, foreknowledge or no. You may be able to alter outcomes, but by getting involved, Faith, you will lose your ability to predict.”

I sighed. “That’s true, and I can’t remember everything. I couldn’t when I was younger, and I definitely can’t now.”

“Yes, I suppose you are limited in that fashion,” Ivy said. It still felt weird talking to a kid this way, and despite her vocabulary and power, I knew she was still a kid. Then she turned to face me, leaning forward on the table a bit. “Faith, your knowledge is an invaluable asset, but it cannot become public knowledge that you have it.”

I nodded. There were beings here that would leap at the chance to have any sort of true foreknowledge, no matter how accurate or inaccurate. “Yeah, I know. I’ve known.”

Damn this headache was getting worse. The Midol really wasn’t helping all that much with it. Talking with Ivy just allowed me to focus on other things.

“I would like it… if you happen upon anything strange that does not conform to your memories, if you were to write it down and your location,” Ivy said, not quite giving me an order, but it sounded like one. “I don’t know everything that you might remember, nor do I wish to. I would prefer to experience the future as it unfolds.”

I nodded, and I smiled. “I completely understand, Ivy.”

“Ivy?” Shit. The headache must have been worse than I thought. It slipped out, and now I might have ruined her relationship with Harry… Oh wait, Mister. That big cat was probably better for it than the name alone. “Why would you call me that?”

“A name for you to use that isn’t the Archive, and it’s similar enough to count. Unfortunately, I think you were supposed to get it tomorrow, from Harry…” I said, apologetically. “Please don’t take it away from him. I’ll give you this stuffed otter.”

A smile played on Ivy’s face. “Deal.”

She took the otter from me and snuggled it tight, reminding me all too much of my younger sisters. That sight made my night, even with the headache that just wouldn’t go away. Sure, Ivy was probably one of the most powerful mortals on the planet, with all of her knowledge and ability to use it, but she was also a seven-year-old kid. She and I really weren’t all that different.

“Now, that’s just wrong,” Kincaid said as he opened the door.

“Look what she gave me, Kincaid,” Ivy said with a grin. “Otters are the best of mammals.”

Thomas looked at me and then Ivy. I couldn’t help but smile. I needed this, after tonight. I needed to see that.

It wasn’t long after that before our food came, and the five of us ate in relative silence. Ivy was too busy paying attention to her new toy to engage us properly, and that really suited me as my headache continued to get worse. At the end of dinner, Kincaid took Ivy with him out to the car, as she imperiously declared that her bed time was approaching, and she needed to have proper rest before speaking with the other duelists in the morning. God, that kid was adorably scary.

Thomas paid for the dinner with the Raith credit card, and we got into the car afterward. He turned to me in the car, and upon seeing my expression, he grimaced. “Let’s get you home.”

It wasn’t that far from the Giordano’s to the street we lived on, and like I’d asked for earlier, Thomas had stopped at the bus stop so I could walk in. He asked me to call him the following day, and he gave me a business card. Taking it, I walked down the street to our house. I noted that the minivan wasn’t in the driveway, which meant Mom was out somewhere, likely with the jawas in tow. Odd, given the time, but given what Daddy and the other Knights were facing, it was entirely possible that she just wanted to go somewhere she didn’t have to think about it.

Still, I was thankful when I went inside. I didn’t want to explain why I was so late to Mom when I was feeling this way. I smelled the fireplace going, so I went to the living room. The TV was turned off, but the fireplace had a low fire burning. I put some more fuel on the fire and unzipped my bag.

Taking out the letter I’d picked up from that writing desk along with the book, still in the cover I’d used, I threw them both onto the fire. Nobody would be doing anything with that book if I could help it. Nobody.

Without looking back, I headed to the room I shared with Molly, who wasn’t there at the moment, and I just collapsed forward onto my bed. The day was done. I had managed to survive, through everything. I had managed to do some sort of magic, and… I had stopped some sort of plot by the Red Court, however unintentionally… but still a person died. I wasn’t good enough, and… I was going to be staying involved. I needed to be. For my family’s sake. For my sister’s sake. I needed to be involved for my own sake.

I felt the tears welling up, and I let loose, crying for innocence lost and the tattered remains of my normal life.

  



	10. Chapter Nine

I don’t know when I fell asleep that night, but when I woke the next morning, my headache was gone. Molly laid next to me in the bed, and somehow I had ended up in my pajamas. Everything felt right when snuggled up next to my sister, as if nothing the world had to offer could harm us. Together with Molly, I could take on the world and win. Of course, right now, given the way the two of us were entangled, I’d have to wait for her to wake up before I could get out of bed. Opening my eyes, I looked into eyes that mirrored my own.

“Mmm… Morning, Fai,” Molly said, leaving her eyes locked on mine. “Feeling better?”

I averted my eyes slightly, focusing on her lips. My lips. “A little. The headache’s gone at least.”

“And we’re done… for this month,” Molly said, quirking her lips some. Thank God for small favors; right now all I wanted to do was stick in bed for a bit. Of course, given our alarm was probably going to go off any minute now, that wasn’t likely to be an option.

“Yeah.” I leaned forward a bit, my forehead against Molly’s. This felt right. “Sorry about the…”

“No need. Want to talk about it?” Molly asked, and I could feel her concern for me. I didn’t like getting her worried over me; it reminded me too much of that one time. Still, I needed to talk to _someone_ , and who better to talk to than my twin? Molly would understand, and I think she already did.

Her concern shifted to a bit of comfort, and I breathed out a sigh. “I suppose I should, to you, at least. I don’t really want to tell Mom and Daddy right now, not with the whole evil money thing.”

“Isn’t that redundant?” Molly said with a smirk.

“Root of all evil?” I asked, Molly nodded. “The Denarians are the real deal though, and Daddy and the other Knights need to focus on dealing with them. Harry too, I think.”

“Faith,” Molly started, not using my nickname to get me on track. “What happened last night? I had to call and let Mom know you were going to be late when you weren’t on the bus at six. Mom gave you until eleven, and given you were here when she got back, you aren’t in trouble, but still.”

Molly had pretended to be me? I suppose it wasn’t any different from me doing the same thing. The two of us were identical in almost every manner anyway, and the only differences we really had were in how we liked to act at least to differentiate ourselves. I’d covered for her before, and I likely would again. The only condition to the covering was that we let each other know why afterward.

“I…” I swallowed, closing my eyes. “Last night. I ran into the monsters again. Vampires this time.”

“Red Court?” Molly asked, and I nodded. “You were scared, but then something happened… what?”

“Magic… I guess.” I explained to Molly how I had gotten away from the Reds the first time, the cross glowing, the world slowing, and then the room. I left off the book that I’d thrown in the fire the previous night because it really wasn’t all that relevant.

“And then this… Thomas? He helped you get out… by feeding on you a bit? You felt…” I could feel Molly’s embarrassment as her cheeks colored. “It made me so angry because something had you scared and then you were like that.”

“I hit him afterward,” I said wryly. “I don’t think he was expecting that… Molly, you felt everything I did last night?”

“Mostly. When I was thinking of you, after…” Molly paused. “I think it happened at the same time as yours. I got home, and Mom’s car wasn’t in the driveway. So I went inside to go change.”

“But… Mom had lent the car to Sanya or someone, right? So she was home… and you were still dressed how you like to dress at school.”

Molly nodded. “I froze when I saw Mom, and I didn’t want her to see me; I was scared to death of her seeing me. Of course, that might have been some of your fear too.”

“And she didn’t see you,” I said, and Molly shook her head.

“I was in the room with her, and she didn’t see me at all,” Molly agreed. “She eventually left and I went up to change. I went to meet up with Becca to work on some homework and…”

“To check out guys at the mall? Really? Didn’t you have a headache?” I asked.

“Yeah, I did. It’s why I got home when I did. This time, Mom had the jawas, and you were curled up on the bed, crying.” Molly ran a hand through my hair. It felt nice. “The headache was easier to deal with when next to you, Fai. It didn’t go away completely, but I could deal with it easier.”

“Sorry if I wasn’t all that helpful with my clothes,” I said, and she laughed.

“Easy enough, Fai.” Molly probably was smiling. My eyes were still closed. “You were pretty compliant, even if you weren’t fully awake.”

I breathed out a sigh of relief and opened my eyes. “That’s good. I hate being a problem.”

“I know, sis.” She locked eyes with me again, and I could see the mirth behind them. “So, magic?”

“Yeah… we might both…” I felt a tugging sensation, coming from Molly’s deep blue pools as they grew to encompass my entire sight. Oh. Oh dear. I didn’t think that this would kick in this soon. I mentally steeled myself for whatever I might see as I started my first soulgaze.

The world spread out between Molly and I, walls falling away, leaving the two of us standing on a summer field. The sky was blue, barely any clouds as far as I could see, and in the distance, I could see mountains. Neither of us were alone on the field, and as I looked right and left, and all around, I could see more, more of Molly and I. Molly and I, standing together against some fearsome foe. Molly and I, taken by whatever dark path we set ourselves on. Molly and I, playing with our children. Not a single version of us stood alone on that field. We stood together, no matter how much we differentiated ourselves. We were two halves of the same whole. We had power, and together, we would decide how we exercised it.

Whatever the future brought, whatever we were to face, we would do it as one. Perhaps we needed a guide, someone to help show us the way. Perhaps we could figure out how to travel down the paths of our lives without help. We had great parents, and we had good friends. If Harry was to be the one who helped us discover what we could do, we would use him, but for now, given the situation with the Denarians, and the possible ending to the situation, we would leave him be. We gazed across the open field, and we knew that each pair was a possibility, something that we could become, and then we looked behind us.

We’d seen its face before, its taint. We were sure we’d see it again, and we knew that it would affect us in the future. We would deal with it, and her, and all possibilities that would come our way the only way we knew how. Together.

As the gaze ended, we laid there in the bed for a few seconds, trying to catch our breath. The alarm went off, and we knew it was time to get out of bed. After some untangling, we managed to sit up and get the alarm turned off through use of one of

“Well, this is strange,” we said, looking at each other. We were sisters, regardless of what the gaze showed, and we loved each other. We… didn’t really like the way we smelled at the moment. “Guess we should take a shower.”

Standing up, we went to go get ready for the day. What couldn’t we face when we were together?

****************

We finished our shower and got dressed for school. We hated that uniform so much, but we weren’t willing to show Mom that we had done things it. Getting grounded for dressing down a bit was not something we were willing to do. We had too many plans that involved what we needed to learn and do. We made our bed, and looked to the side table, frowning. That book had been in the fireplace last night. We/I definitely remembered throwing it into the burning flame. How did it end up there?

I/we stuffed it into my/our backpack, resolving to deal with it later after we got to school and figured out what we were doing currently. So we had magic and power, but we really had no clue what it was that we were doing with it. The first step to learning about magic was finding as many books on the subject as we feasibly could without alerting our parents. If they knew we had magic, they’d do one of two things: they’d accept it joyfully as the gift from God it was, or they’d tell us to shun it. Given how Mom reacted around Harry, despite how Daddy felt about him, we were highly inclined to believe that at least she’d probably want the latter.

Ultimately it didn’t matter. We were going to figure out our magic. We’d head to Barnes and Noble, the library, and anywhere else we could think of to get information. Perhaps while we were there, we could look up something on the twin condition and see what was going on here between us. It didn’t really matter much, and we doubted that our parents and the other Knights would treat this time any different from any other time the two of us had played up our twinness. Sanya’d had trouble identifying us yesterday from memory because of it. Additionally, I/we would have to call Thomas later today to see what he wanted to talk about. Maybe it would be about the stuff from last night, or maybe it would be something else. He probably wanted to check on us after what had happened. We did leave some blood for the Eebs, and if we remembered anything about how magic, how thaumaturgy could work, then that could end badly.

Admittedly it had been in a plastic cup that still had the lingering droplets of Diet Coke within it, and the blood was likely to be drank by the Red Court vampires. In the future, however, we needed to be more careful about what we left lying around.

A knock came at our door, and then it cracked open. Our mother peeked her head in, seeing our spotless room. “Molly, Faith, come say goodbye to your father and Sanya.”

“Why, where is he going?” we asked, then we corrected ourselves. “Where are _they_ going?”

Mom looked at us, a bit of an odd look in her eye. We thought we felt a tinge of worry, but she covered it up quickly with her answer. “They’re going on a trip to St. Louis.”

“Denarian activity?” we asked, fairly certain of the answer. We stood up, brushing off our skirts, and headed toward the door.

“Yes, but they said it shouldn’t be long…” Mom watched us as we stepped through the door, filing out and toward the stairs. Hope came around the corner from her room, and she toddled along after us. Our younger sisters were all adorable, and Hope certainly was that.

“Mom, you might want to grab Hope,” we said, alternating every three words. “We don’t really think she’s ready for the stairs yet.”

Mom picked up the jawa, and shook her head. She looked at the two of us oddly, but she started down the hall to knock on Danny and Matt’s door, likely to give them the same news. We made our way downstairs, where, once again, Shiro was cooking breakfast. Daddy and Sanya were at the table, drinking coffee.

“Daddy,” we said, looking at him. “Please be careful in St. Louis, and come back quickly.”

“Girls,” Daddy started, raising his hands in placation. “I will do what I must, and you know that.”

We closed our eyes and sighed. “Daddy, just be safe. We don’t want you hurt for any reason.”

He wouldn’t be getting hurt if we had anything to say about it. Daddy wore Kevlar to help protect him from bullets, but even that was susceptible to stronger bullets, something the Denarians easily had access to if they thought about it.

“Do not worry, girls. I will keep Michael safe.” Sanya grinned from his side of the table. “But from how he took out Ursiel last night, I do not think he will need much help from me.”

“Sanya…” Daddy sounded exasperated. We weren’t sure that Sanya was supposed to mention that tidbit of information. Interesting. Harry might have been there, and that meant that he might be coming over to talk strategy with Daddy.

Also, Mom mentioned last night that Harry’s girlfriend Susan was in town, the one who had been infected by the Red Court vampires. We wondered how that was going to work out. It sounded like some tragic love story that wasn’t going to end well for either of them, but perhaps we might be able to give Harry some ideas as to how to better improve the situation with her. It was worth a shot.

“Sanya, we’d like you to come back safe too.” We alternated our wording again, every two words this time. We wouldn’t want them to think we were strange, after all. Speaking in unison the whole time would be something that could cause that.

Sanya laughed a belly laugh that made us shiver. The man’s voice worked wonders at times, but we couldn’t let that dismiss us out of hand. “Faith, Molly, it is good to see you making the effort to get your father and I comfortable, but the two of you do not need to worry about me. With a little bit of luck, and your father’s faith, we will make it out of this one. And if the Denarians in Chicago should become a problem, Shiro is staying here.”

We glanced over to the Japanese man making breakfast, and blanched. That had been something we remembered. We needed to talk to Shiro later today, before he went with Harry. We needed to see if we could convince him to find another way to rescue Harry or prevent Harry from needing rescue after all. We didn’t want Nicodemus to kill him. He was our… He was a lot to us.

“Hai, I am. I will be helping your mother with her errands later today.” Shiro turned back to the breakfast, and then he made out the bowls of eggs and rice. He served them to the both of us at the table. “Eat up, the two of you need your strength.”

We bowed and thanked him for the meal, eating in unison. As we were finishing up our meal, the rest of our siblings came down, along with Mom, who was holding little Harry. We vacated our seats and took our dishes into the kitchen to wash. Alicia watched us over the book she was reading, which looked like _Alice in Wonderland_ to us. We washed our dishes off and placed them in the dishwasher, then turned to Daddy and Sanya.

“Daddy, we’ll keep you in our prayers today.” We went over and hugged him from behind, kissing him on the cheek. We turned to Sanya and did the same, our heart beating a little quicker after doing so. “Sanya, you as well. Stay safe in St. Louis. Kick some monster... hiney.”

“We shall do as the Lord wills. I will see you two when we get back.” Daddy sipped his coffee, and smiled. “If He wishes it, we’ll be back soon enough.”

We wished they wouldn’t have to leave, that they could stay in town and help Harry and Shiro, but we knew that if there was even the slightest chance that the Denarians were also acting in St. Louis, they had to go. We, on the other hand, needed to get to school. The sooner we accomplished that, the sooner we’d get to go home and out of this fucking uniform.

We said our goodbyes, and we started walking out toward the bus stop. We had a lot to think about on our way to the stop, and given the current situation, talking to ourselves would be strange. Whatever was going on with that book that I/we found the previous night, we would probably need to read through it to find out. What got us thinking was that even the cover had been untarnished by the flames, and that had not originally been a part of the book. In fact, the art on the cover of the book had just gotten more striking, the block letters of the title more reflective and clearly written.

Whatever the creature was the book was about, it was something that Venatori Umbrorum member thought could help with the war against the Red Court. Judging from the letter, the White Council had a standard operating procedure when it came to ritual magic, and it probably was something like “reproduce the book as much as possible.” Something about that seemed wrong to us. This particular ritual book probably wasn’t something that should be reproduced. We weren’t sure why, but we felt something needed to be done about it.

Of course, we weren’t going to try the ritual ourselves. That would just be stupid, and we definitely weren’t that. The book wasn’t going to leave our possession though, and we couldn’t let anyone get ahold of it. If anyone asked about it and what it was, we’d just tell them that it was a copy of one of our favorite books: _Through the Looking Glass_.

  



	11. Chapter Ten

It wasn’t long that we had to wait this morning before the bus arrived. We’d gotten the art of being on time for our morning bus down to a science. We realized that didn’t exactly make sense, but it was rare that the two of us had to wait longer than a few minutes for the bus these days. Additionally, it was a rare day where we managed to be late for the bus. We wanted to get a car for the two of us, but given our age, we only held a Learner’s permit, and we doubted that Mom would let us pick out a car on our own. Given recent developments, if we were to pick out a car, it would have to be significantly older than the one that Thomas drove us/me home in the previous night. Damn. Even the memory of the vampire was attractive. We’d have to watch that and make sure that we leveraged our bond so as not to get distracted by how pretty he was. If we both were nearby, that could be a real and present danger. It was a good thing he was on our side. Sort of, anyway.

We boarded the bus as it arrived, and we made our way toward our regular seat in the back. We were one of the first stops the bus made in the morning, which meant that we were able to have our pick of the seats when we got on. It also gave us plenty of time to change into our _real_ school outfit. We/Molly reached into our/her bag to pull out the altered uniform that we liked, but we realized that we only had the one. A compromise would have to be struck this morning. We would make sure that we looked exactly as we wanted for the school day. We/Molly changed into the altered uniform while we/I began to alter ours/mine in a similar fashion, to compliment the other. We then pulled out our make-up kit and did up our faces for the day, applying just enough make-up. Our bras were visible, one red and one blue, and we were certain that both the guys and girls would love it when they saw us. Our make-up wasn’t too much, but it was enough that we would stand out. We were confident that the two of us would be able to deal with our classes without issue. Together like this, we’d be able to easily pass whatever tests we were going to have today, remembering what we did from our/my previous life. We would just need to call back to that memory and flip through the book to—

The bus ran over a deep pothole, causing me to fall forward, slamming my head against the seat in front of me. “FUCKING HELL!”

“Language, Carpenter! That’s your first warning for the day,” the bus driver said, looking back at me.

“Sorry Miss Jones,” I said.

“It won’t happen again,” Molly continued as she reached forward to help me rub my head where it struck the seat. “Are you—”

I rubbed my head simultaneous with Molly. “Okay? Yeah, I think I—”

“Will be.” Molly shook her head, and the dark-red lipstick she wore was obvious as she quirked her lips. “So, that was—”

“Different,” I agreed. We’d played up the twin thing before, but what had happened was different. “Still seems to—”

“Be going on a bit,” Molly concluded. At my nod, she started again. “Maybe we should—”

“Try to talk just...” I continued before stopping and closing my own blood-red lips.

“One at a time?” Molly finished asking, and she cocked her head. _You first._

I breathed out a sigh, flicking my eyes down and licking my lips. _Okay, I’ll try. Stay quiet._

“I don’t think that was supposed to—” I grimaced slightly.

“Happen?” Molly let out a small squeak and put her hand over her mouth. She uncovered her mouth after a second. “But, it did. And we’re still—”

“Finishing each other’s sentences. I know.” I hugged my sister. “Sorry for not telling you.”

“You had your reasons.” Molly hugged me back. “But you’re _my_ sister now. Don’t forget it.”

“I won’t.” I said. “Wonder why—”

“The soulgaze worked now when—” Molly continued, proving that she knew stuff I did.

“We’d only just started using the magic…” I trailed off, thinking. “Maybe it doesn’t have anything—”

“To do with the Sight?” Molly pursed her lips, and I could feel her pondering. What it was, I didn’t know. “Maybe not. Should avoid—”

“Looking others in the eye. I agree.” I nodded.

Molly smiled, and she released the hug enough that she was able to look me in the eyes. “We’ll need to talk—”

“With Shiro, yeah.” Shiro Yoshimo was going to die within the next couple days if we left things alone. Perhaps he’d die if we tried, but if we could save him, it was worth whatever risk we took. Neither of us knew much about our magic. I probably would have to run from a Denarian even if I did know about my magic. Still, Shiro was family. Maybe not by blood, but in faith.

“Also, blue bra. Nice choice,” Molly commented. “Drew and Becca are going to love it.”

“It’s not like that with Drew.” I waved off that comment. It really wasn’t. He was a friend. We played Magic together, and I beat him more often than not. I mean sure, he was a cute enough guy, but you’d have to be blind not to recognize that. It just wasn’t like that with him.

“And Becca?” Molly asked teasingly. I felt my cheeks warm a bit. Redheads had been a bit of a weakness of mine in my last life, though my girlfriend then had been a blonde. Still, in this life, I wasn’t going to actively pursue anyone, at least not while I was in High School.

“If Becca wants to go out with me,” I said, fighting down my blush. “She needs to be the one to ask, not you. Don’t tell her that, please.”

Molly cocked her head slightly. _Really? Okay, I suppose._

I sighed and smiled. _Thank you._

“So, I just thought of something,” Molly said. I cocked my own head, encouraging her to go on. We weren’t exactly sharing thoughts anymore, so this was going to be an interesting thing to hear. “Last night, something happened to that claw machine, right?”

“Yeah?” I asked, not quite following where this was going, but a feeling of mild dread showed up in the pit of my stomach.

“Don’t you have Programming right after lunch? Before we meet up for PE, that is.” Molly squeezed my shoulders as I nodded. “If the claw machine broke while you were using it… what’s going to happen to the computer you’re using?”

God help me, she was right. Hell, if I was really unlucky, what could I do to that entire room? And Programming had been one of my favorite classes too.

Fuck it. I’ll blame this one on puberty as well. Puberty really fucking sucks.

******************

The bus pulled up to the school about ten minutes early that morning, and Molly and I left the bus, practically arm-in-arm. We stepped inside the school building, ignoring the stares coming from those surrounding us. I honestly didn’t care why they were staring; my mind hadn’t exactly stopped going over scenarios on how to prevent Programming from becoming an issue later that day. Maybe if I diverted all my focus onto just making sure the program itself worked. I still didn’t know exactly what I was doing yet, and it was quite likely that my talent, such as it was, wasn’t strong enough to do much of anything to tech unless I was actively using it. I just needed to not use it, while in school, at least. After school, all bets were off.

I brushed Molly’s arm with my own, flicking a stray strand of my hair back over my head so it could rest where it was supposed to with my haircut. _We’re trying stuff out when we get home, right?_

Molly arched an eyebrow and looked around. _Well, definitely not here._

I nodded. Magic in a Catholic school... well, it felt like something would definitely be wrong with that on an inherent level. Perhaps it had something to do with the witch line in Exodus. Sure, it probably was a mistranslation, given how Daddy acted around Harry, but I wasn’t really willing to chance it while at school. Too many of our classmates were, to put it mildly, jerks. Screw them. Still, there were more reasons not to display too much too fast, and one happened to be a silver sword paired with a grey cloak. There were laws to magic, Laws _of_ Magic, and it was bad to break any of them. I just couldn’t really remember how many there were or what they all were. Pretty sure there was a No Killing in there, and no mind fuckery. Clearly, not phrased like that, but it boiled down to that. Whatever else there was, didn’t matter.

Molly and I hugged each other once more before we separated, each headed for our own homerooms. This morning, Jason was there alone when I got there. Cecelia and Andrew’s busses probably hadn’t arrived yet, or they were being taken in by their parents. School rules stated that even if you had a license, you weren’t allowed to drive your own car to the school. Some people drove and left their cars off-campus, but mostly, it was better to just use the school’s transportation. This was a stark contrast to what I remembered from my last life, but even then, I took the bus.

Jason looked me up and down, and said, “Molly, isn’t your class over on the other side? This is Fai’s homeroom, not that she’ll stay awake through it.”

“Jace, it’s me,” I said, slightly annoyed.

“I know it’s you, Molly.” Jason adjusted his backpack. “Where’s Fai, is she sick?”

“Jace,” I growled out. “I’m Fai. Check the hair, numbnuts.”

Jason blinked and looked at me, squinting. “Huh. Fai, you know you really look like Molly today.”

I rubbed the bridge of my nose, and then I reached into my bag and pulled out my compact. I may not have worn much makeup normally, but it never hurt to have a way to check my face. Huh. I wore a good amount of make-up today. My lips were a deep blood-red, my face, practically porcelain, and my eyes were outlined in dark eyeliner with some black eyeshadow. Looking down at my uniform, it wasn’t exactly quite as bad as Molly’s, but it was close. I could see how Jason would have mistaken me for my sister, given I usually barely bothered with make-up, and I wore the uniform untouched.

Still, it looked good on me, and I could deal for a day. I didn’t exactly have a spare uniform to change into, and I wasn’t entirely sure that I wanted to anyway. Instead, I reached into my bag and pulled out a deck of cards.

“So Jace, just for your mistake, I think you and I should play a game. Or three.” I flipped open the deck box, not even really paying attention to which one it was.

“You’re on, Fai.” He pulled out his own deck, and we sat down, across from each other outside the classroom. We still had a good half hour before we had to be in class, so we’d have time to get in a game or two.

As the pair of us shuffled our decks, Jason asked, “So, why the goth look this morning, Fai?”

I offered my deck to be cut. “Felt like it. Moll and I, we’re twins, and sometimes we need to remind ourselves that.”

“That mean you’re going to dress like that from now on?” Jace asked as he cut my deck. “Because if so, I know where you can go to—”

“I know where to shop if I feel like continuing. Or I can borrow Moll’s clothes, Jace,” I cut him off, and then rolled some dice. “Let’s just play.”

Jason shook his head. I knew he wanted to date Cecelia, but from the way he was staring… He never stared this way at Molly. What made me different? I mean, Molly and I were identical.

His roll beat mine. “I’ll be on the play. So, you do the Lit. homework?”

We each drew our seven cards. My hand wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either. This was just a way to pass time. “There was Lit. homework?”

Shit. How did I manage to miss that? Literature was one of the few subjects here that wasn’t genuinely boring, and that was because I hadn’t read most of the books we’d been focusing on before. Well, make that I hadn’t read them before the class. I may have read all of them once I saw the syllabus and knew what was coming up.

“Yeah, we were supposed to write an analysis of the themes in the eighth chapter of _The Fishing Man_. I’ll keep.” Was Jason going easy on me? Also, _The Fishing Man_? That wasn’t a book on the syllabus. I wasn’t even sure that actually was a book in the first place. We’d been reading Hemmingway in that class recently, and the teacher had been pretty passionate, talking about the man’s drunken adventures that led to him writing the book.

“You don’t mean _The Old Man and the Sea_ , do you? Keeping as well.” I was on the draw, maybe I’d be able to pull what I needed.

“Of course that’s what he meant, Fai,” Cecelia said as she came up. “That _is_ you, right? Molly didn’t get a haircut and decide to play hooky by going to the opposite side of school…”

“Hey!” I glared at the ginger. “I’m me, alright. Just because I felt like a bit of a change today…”

“All right.” Cecelia held up her hands in surrender. “Might want to make your move though. Jace has played his most deadly opening hand. Island go.”

“Control freak,” I said in a teasing tone, drawing my card and making my opening play on autopilot. “So, themes of chapter eight. I’ll have to work on that during first period.”

“Think you can have it done?” Jason asked as he played his second turn play.

“Have what done?” Andrew asked as he came up, looking to Jason. He hadn’t quite looked at me yet, and I straightened out my skirt with my free hand. I needed to make sure Molly wasn’t getting into my head more than she already had that morning. Drew was just a friend… who now was looking at me. “F-Fai, is that you?”

“Trying something new, Drew. Like?” I smiled at him, after all, as a friend, his opinion was very important to me.

“N-I mean, yes. You look good.” Andrew smiled at me warmly. It made me glad that my friend liked it.

“Excuse me, are you still playing, Fai?” Jason asked, annoyed. “Because I’m done with my turn.”

I looked at my hand, looked at the board, and then drew a card. I smiled. “Have two counterspells ready, Jace? Because if you don’t, I win now.”

Jason grimaced. Yes! I knew it. He might have had one Force of Will ready, but he didn’t have a second one. “I concede. That deck’s not fair, Fai.”

I shrugged. “If I wanted to play fair with you, I would have brought out the Hive. We should head in.”

We gathered up our things and made our way to our desks. As I walked to mine, Sister Agnes cleared her throat. “Miss Carpenter. Where, exactly, is your sister? This is her homeroom, not yours. You, I believe have Sister Josephine for your homeroom.”

“I’m right here, Sister Agnes,” I said as I took my usual desk. “Molly and I are doing the identical thing today.”

“Oh! Oh… My apologies, Miss Carpenter. This is most unusual.” Sister Agnes looked me over, pausing. “You _are_ still in uniform, thus fulfilling dress code policy, and it covers enough of you that it isn’t actually indecent. It is still dangerously close to borderline, Miss Carpenter.”

“I know, Sister, but if I’m not breaking the rules, I’m free to be like this, right?” I asked, and she nodded. “Cool. Thank you, Sister Agnes.”

“You’re welcome, Miss Carpenter.” Our school had a uniform policy, sure, but as long as we were wearing the uniform and it was recognizable as the uniform, it really didn’t matter the state it was in. That’s how Molly and I were able to get away with the modifications we made, and the Sisters didn’t call Molly on it normally because she was “free to express her individuality”, or something like that. That’s why I wasn’t worried that Sister Agnes would call Mom and Daddy.

When she began lecturing, I dug through my bag. I knew I had a copy of Hemmingway in there somewhere. I pulled out my folder and frowned as my hands clasped around the book in my _Through the Looking Glass_ cover. I didn’t want to read that. Whatever it was, it wasn’t something to be read during school, nor was it really something that I wanted to read at all. It should have burned the previous night, but it hadn’t. Something to worry about later.

I retrieved _The Old Man and the Sea_ and flipped it open while Sister Agnes faced the board, writing down today’s notes on the Third Crusade. I needed to get the Lit homework done that I hadn’t been able to do the previous night due to… just way too much. I focused my efforts on writing a basic literary analysis on the chapter, as best as I could within the time limit. Sure, Lit was my last class of the day, but I wanted this done before lunch so I could focus on not breaking things in Programming.

By the time the bell rang, I had written two and a half pages, and I grumbled as I headed to my next class. I gave the same spiel about my outfit to the calc teacher, and I sat down to finish up this report. After half a page more, I was finished. I glanced at the clock and saw that I had some time left before class ended, and the rest of the class was busy trying to figure out the latest challenge problem the teacher had placed on the board. I glanced at it, shook my head, and jotted down the answer and how to solve it, and then on a second piece of paper, I started drawing.

I hadn’t been the greatest of artists in my previous life, which is why I was so happy that my hand was steady and things translated easier from my mind to paper in this one. Of course, given the relative simplicity of what I was drawing, it wasn’t exactly representative of my best efforts. What I drew was a circle on the paper. Not the geometric shape, though that was involved, but instead what I was drawing was what I could remember about the circle used to open and close the door in the library. In the outer rim, I filled it in with symbols similar to what I could remember, but what I ended up doing was turning this into a pentagram. Between each point of the pentagram’s star, I drew a cross, with the longer end pointing toward the center of the pentagram. I wasn’t sure why I drew it this way, but something about it felt right. I sat and admired my work for a few seconds before glancing at the time. Barely five minutes remained in class, so I put my work into my bag and zipped it up. When the bell rang, I stood up and walked out to where Drew waited for me.

“How is it you manage to get out here first every day?” I asked as he slipped an arm around me. Two boys, Smith and Jones, I believe, were rubbing their shoulders and purposefully not looking in our direction. I wasn’t going to bring it up.

“Good timing, and I sit closer to the door than you do. Helps that my last name’s Warren.” Drew squeezed my arm a little and walked with me to meet up with Jason and Cecelia.

“Yeah, that’d be a thing if we sat alphabetical.” I leaned on his arm. Not many people were taller than Molly and I. It felt nice to be able to lean on someone that was.

“Oh, I almost forgot. Jace and Cece are grabbing lunch for us and meeting at the table.” Drew and I kept moving to the cafeteria. I could feel people staring at me, some in envy, some in lust, some in anger. I ignored all of it, pushed away everything else and just focused on the now, the getting to the lunchroom, where Molly waited with Becca and Glenn.

Becca smiled when she saw me, her darkened lips quirking lightly. “Faith, Andrew, please take a seat.”

“Thanks,” Drew said, pulling out a chair for me to sit in next to Molly. He beat Glenn to the punch today, and I sat down, smoothing out my skirt, careful not to let my fingers get caught in the cuts.

“So Faith, I see you’ve joined the goth side for today, how exciting,” Glenn said.

I wrapped an arm around my sister, and we smiled, speaking in unison. “What can we say? We’re exciting people.”

Molly cracked first, I’m proud to say, but I quickly joined her in the giggling from that intentional bout. It was probably a bit too joyful, but it had Becca laughing too. The boys just looked a bit nonplussed.

“What’s so funny?” Cecelia asked as she came over, holding two trays. Jason wasn’t far behind her, also carrying two trays.

“I have no idea, Cece,” Drew said, standing to help hand out the trays.

“I’ll get our food,” Glenn said as he stood up. “Just wanted to wait for them to get back.”

Molly, Becca and I managed to catch our breath, and I shook my head. “You had to be here.”

Drew snorted. “I was here, and I missed it, Fai.”

He placed a tray of pizza in front of Molly and I, and I nodded to her. _You first. I’m going to keep talking_.

“Well, Drew, that’s why you need to pay attention.” I debated sticking my tongue out at him, but instead I just licked my lips. “Never know what else you might miss.”

Becca nodded. “And if you have to explain it, it loses half the fun.”

Molly took half my pizza as I just grinned at Becca and Drew, who groaned. “Jace, save me from estrogen overload.”

“You’re on your own there,” Jace said as he munched a fry. “So, manage to finish your report, Fai?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty good, I think. Meant to do it last night, but…” I shrugged. “Not my favorite book we’ve read in class, but not the worst.”

Becca snickered. “Yeah, at least it’s not _Gatsby_.”

“That’s a book that’d probably be better as a movie,” Cecelia declared. “But it wasn’t that bad. _1984_ was my killer.”

I shook my head. “Let’s not focus on evil literature. Good movies are the better choice. _Return of the King_ is looking good.”

We talked about upcoming films, deck ideas, what we could expect from upcoming sets, and video games. One thing we actively avoided talking about, primarily, was boys or girls who we liked. I mean, sure, there were some comments about Viggo Mortensen’s portrayal and how Orlando Bloom looked as Legolas, but overall, we didn’t really want to make the guys uncomfortable. Glenn had come back with his, Becca’s and Molly’s trays not long into the conversation, and Molly shared her food with me.

Becca, however, placed half of her chocolate cake in front of me, and I smiled gratefully at her. “Thanks, Becca.”

“Just thought you could use something sweet to compliment how you look today, Faith.” Becca smiled back at me. Jason and Drew had gotten in an argument about some ruling or another, and each was making their case. Molly, meanwhile, was talking animatedly with Glenn, about… Well, the words fun-time cuffs were involved, on Glenn’s end, and Molly was shaking her head and giggling. Cecelia was focused on trying to back up Jason, which left Becca and I. “I’m glad you decided to stop hiding.”

“Never really was hiding, Becca,” I said, looking down at myself. “Just had my preferences… Still do.”

“Well, I hope that you can listen to your preferences more.” Becca brushed my hand with her own, and as I was about to return the favor, the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. “We’ll talk more later, Faith.”

I nodded and gathered my stuff, standing. “Definitely.”

Crap. Now was Programming. On a normal day, Programming was one of my favorite courses, despite us focusing primarily on learning VB for the first few months. I know we had initially planned on switching to C++ when we got the chance, but I wasn’t entirely certain that I’d get the chance. Given what magic tended to do to technology, I might have to drop out of the course and switch to something else, but I’d burn that bridge when I came to it. In the meantime, I just needed to make it through this class.

I walked into the computer lab that our Programming course was held in, and I walked down the rows of computers to the one I had assigned to my use. The computers the school kept still had those bulky CRT monitors sitting next to Dell Inspiron microtowers. The computers in the lab ran Windows 2000, but we did our programming and compiling by remoting into a Linux server.

I was careful not to touch anything as I approached the computer. I needed to not cause any sort of failure. Admittedly, I shouldn’t have been all that strong just yet, so maybe it was possible for me to make it through the class without having any serious issue. I just needed to stay calm. Keep my emotions still.

_Don’t let them in, don’t let them see_. Damnit. Whatever that song was, I was fairly certain it wasn’t even out yet, but it was a freaking earworm. Still, the right idea there. I needed to just focus on keeping a lid on my emotions.

“Man, is that Faith Carpenter?” I heard a whisper from behind me, and I tried to ignore it. I logged onto the computer, pulling up the assignment list for the day. We’d had a substitute today, so they’d just written what Mr. Williams had wanted us to do on the board.

“Yeah, I think it is.” I don’t think they knew how loud they were being. I just needed to, hmm. I flipped open Google to try and find out how I’d pull off a certain command. It was easy enough to just focus on working this.

“Mmm… didn’t think she’d doll up so well.” I wasn’t paying attention. I was focused on my work. Focus was the key. I was going to keep myself focused.

“Well, have you seen her sister?” That one voice probably belonged to Justin Davidson. He was one of the few jocks in the classroom. He was built like two linebackers had a sixteen-year-old son. Dark hair, rugged face, Justin knew how attractive he was, and he made use of it. Which meant the other voice was probably his partner in crime, Matt Long. Matt was a running back on the football team, and a quite good one, from the one or two games I managed to catch. He was quick on his feet and durable. Still his attitude matched his friend’s.

“Oh yeah. She loves to slut it up. Easy is as easy does.” I was… Okay, I could focus on my work when they were talking about me. This was something else. As I turned away from my computer, I noticed it BSOD. I started stalking my way back toward the boys.

“Excuse me, would you care to repeat that?” I said, arching my eyebrow. Molly was my sister. Say what you want about me, make fun of me, try and hurt me with words, fine. Molly was off-limits. “My sister is, what, exactly, Mr. Long?”

Justin, for his part looked properly ashamed, but Matt didn’t even seem to care. “I said she was easy, and a slut, Carpenter. Just like you.”

Oh, that boy had no sense of self-preservation. I almost wanted to tie him up and send him as a present to Lara Raith, but that would be too much of a reward for him. He wouldn’t be scared enough. Red Court would be nice, but even then, they wanted to kill most anyone, and they might turn him. But hey, then I’d be able to get all the satisfaction I wanted for what he said about my sister. Molly, as far as I knew, was still a virgin, and I’m sure she would have told me if she weren’t. To call her a slut, and then to not even care…

It says a lot about how my mental state was when I didn’t notice the first few monitors going, sparking out and flashing up. I did, however, hear the surprised shouts, and then, I smelled the smoke. I managed to look around, just in time to see the computer next to me BSOD, then the monitor spark up and the magic smoke come out its back.

“All right, everyone, settle down.” The substitute tried to calm the class, but as they started panicking, I started getting even more nervous, and more computers started breaking, causing more papers and things to ignite. It probably didn’t help that several of the monitors had dust in their outgoing fans, as those caught ablaze too. “Okay, everyone, out the classroom, single file.”

The fire-suppression sprinklers came on overhead as we left the room, but I was lucky enough to get out of there before I got drenched. I had grabbed my bag, and as we made our way out to where our class was supposed to be when the fire alarms started going off, I started to wonder something. As the fire alarm above me gurgled out of commission, I wondered, how could this day get worse?

  



	12. Chapter Eleven

I suppose it was a lucky thing that the fire was contained to the computer room and didn’t spread. The fire crew managed to arrive within ten minutes of the alarm going off, and within the hour, we were allowed to go back into the school building. The computer lab was trashed, of course, so we spent the rest of the class going over notes, and the substitute put a movie on. Well, to be perfectly accurate, _I_ spent the rest of the class glaring at Matt. I was going to have to enact some sort of amazing revenge on the fucker, but I knew it couldn’t be magical or something that tied back to me. I would have an amazing time planning this. I also probably needed to figure out a way to drop Programming. Maybe I could swap it out for a different class, Metalworking, maybe. I always enjoyed helping Mom out when she made Daddy’s armor, or when she made training blades. There was something soothing about taking metal and shaping it into something that could be used.

Programming ended all too slowly that day and gym class began. Gym was one of my favorite classes in this life primarily because I’d spent the time to get myself into shape. When I was little, I had some aspirations of gymnastics, but it quickly became apparent how tall Molly and I were going to be so we couldn’t do that. Instead, I focused primarily on other things to stay limber. Working with Molly, Mom and Daddy helped a bit, as it kept us ready for whatever the school threw at us, but I wasn’t sure we did enough to be ready for whatever the world might throw at us. Still, gym this day had been fun, and both Molly and I managed to end up on the same team for once. We proceeded to kick ass in volleyball.

English Literature was the last class of the day, and I was all ready to turn in the paper that Jason had mentioned was due today. Imagine how I felt when I found out that the paper wasn’t due until Monday. Sister Louise intended on giving us the weekend to work on it, and I swear that I wasn’t going to take revenge on Jason. It wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t remember that the homework wasn’t due until next week. I also didn’t smack him in the back of the head as I walked by on the way out of class. My hand slipped.

Still, I was glad to be on the bus to get home after what had happened that day. When Molly took the seat next to me, I laid my head on her shoulder and smiled. “Thank God; today’s over.”

“Yeah, are you okay? I heard the fire started in the computer lab.” Molly wrapped her right arm around me, and I swear I could feel her concern.

“I’m fine… some of the monitors went up a bit catastrophically, and I think I might have lost the progress I made on my program due to the fire. Won’t know until it’s safe to go back into the room and people clean up.” I tried not to let the embarrassment I felt reach my cheeks.

“So, what happened?” Molly brushed a strand of my hair off my face. “You didn’t use any—”

“Magic? No, I didn’t,” I said, a little indignant in my embarrassment. “But I don’t think I needed to. I was getting angry at Davidson and Long. They said some things about… It doesn’t matter. I got angry.”

“And computers caught fire,” Molly said. “Remind me not to piss you off.”

“Hey, if they did that around me—” I started.

“They could do it around me too,” Molly finished. “I know. We need to figure this stuff out.”

I agreed wholeheartedly. Technically if we asked, I was pretty sure that we could probably get Harry Dresden’s help with this, but he was busy this month. He was dealing with that duel with Duke Ortega of the Red Court, and he was looking for the Shroud of Turin, which was also being hunted by the Denarians. Asking him when he was busy this way wasn’t going to be a good idea, but perhaps when this ended, we could ask Harry to train us. We’d be good apprentices under him, no matter how much it pissed off Mom. In fact, I was pretty sure, in my last life, that I remembered Molly being Dresden’s apprentice. I just couldn’t for the life of me remember how that came about.

I rested on Molly’s shoulder for the moment, until the bus passed by our house on its way to the bus stop. Mom’s must have been at the store since the van was missing from the driveway. Ah, right, today was errand day, which lifted a weight off my shoulders that I didn’t even know was there. If Mom was out, Molly and I would be able to change into our normal clothes without having to worry about walking past her on our way in. There was just one problem.

“Molly, do you have your keys?” I asked, a little worried as we approached. I was about eighty percent certain my keys were still on the counter in the house.

“No, I thought you had yours.” Molly frowned. “Usually you’re the one who remembers them.”

“Great. At least we have our spare clothes, but damn. I was looking forward to changing inside and grabbing a shower after that fire,” I groused. “Guess we’ll have to use the treehouse.”

“Not really an issue,” Molly said with a shrug. I lifted my head off her shoulder and nodded.

“I’ll shower after we get the jawas and groceries inside, then.” We stood up and stalked our way off the bus, occasionally falling lockstep with each other, but I made a point to adjust my pace every so often so that the two of us weren’t looking like synchronized walkers or something similar. A few months ago, the street had been covered with leaves of all colors, and that dingy little VW bug parked under the oak tree would have been coated with fallen leaves. Now, most of the leaves were off the tree, but the treehouse still held up. Of course, given it had been built by Daddy, that was to be expected. The treehouse was practically a fortress, with its solid, finished walls, actual window, and guardrails that could easily prevent anyone from falling off. I personally enjoyed the porch it had on a warm summer day and in a bikini or other swimsuit.

Daddy had built the treehouse a few years back, mostly for Danny and Matt to play around in, since Molly and I were interested in other things. Of course, once he had it built, the two of us had a great time climbing up there and claiming it ourselves. To further twig our brothers off, we declared that no boys were allowed up there, for the three weeks that we enforced the claim anyway. Eventually we let them come up and enjoy their treehouse, but Molly and I still used it occasionally for our purposes.

When we came to the base of the tree, I looked up. “I’ll go first, Moll.”

“Okay, Fai,” Molly said and gestured for me to go on up already. I nodded and began my ascent, Molly starting hers soon after me.

Of course, I definitely didn’t expect to be greeted by a bright red light coming from the outstretched stick held by a dark-haired man.

Gasping at the sight, I might also have let out a squeak before saying, “Holy fuck.”

The man lowered the stick, and the light faded as I climbed the rest of the way up. Dear God, I’d forgotten how tall he was. This was the Wizard, Harry Dresden. Dark hair, nearly seven feet tall, but he was lanky, and missing his signature duster. I wondered idly what had happened to it as I made my way up.

“Mol-Faith?” Harry asked, clearly realizing who I was a short while after.

I glanced at the stick in his hand, a feeling of amazement coming over me. I swear I’d seen him use it before, but it had been years, and I wasn’t exactly in the best of mental states then. “Wow, that’s actually magic, right?”

He blinked at me, but he made no other comments until Molly started on her way up. I reached down to help get her in.

“Molly too?” Harry asked and blinked again. The two of us placed our backpacks down on the wooden floor, and I watched Dresden’s face. He clearly was having some sort of issue with what we were wearing, but I doubted he’d say anything. Harry was a bit cool like that.

“You lurk in treehouses a lot, Mister Dresden?” Molly asked and nudged me. _We should get changed._

“I’m looking for your dad,” Harry answered.

“You know, it occurs to me,” I said, unzipping my bag and pulling out the clothes I’d placed in it this morning. Apparently I was going to be wearing a floral-printed long skirt, a t-shirt and a pink sweater. I didn’t pack a bra change, but that’d be fine. I’d put a new one on before I went anywhere tonight though. “I know you’re an investigator and all, and far be it for me to tell you how to do your job. But, generally… Daddy’s not the kind of person to find in treehouses.”

I nudged Molly as I noticed her pulling out an exactly identical outfit. _Looks like we get to be the DoubleMint twins again._

She grinned, and Harry responded, “I came over, but no one answered the door when I knocked. Is that normal?”

“Errand day,” I said, jumping into the skirt and pulling it up over my uniform.

“Mom loads all the snot-nosed Jawas into the sandcrawler and goes all over town,” Molly continued as she did the same.

“She’ll probably be back soon,” I continued, preempting Harry’s next question as I got my uniform skirt off and then pulled on the shirt and sweater. I pulled off the rest of my uniform… and my blue bra, stuffing them all into my backpack. Molly did the same with hers and the red bra.

Harry must have been embarrassed, as he turned away slightly, possibly to give Molly and I a bit of privacy. I glanced to his wrist, and frowned at what I saw. The wizard had a single link of handcuff attached there, tightly, and I couldn’t honestly think of a good reason for it to be there.

Molly passed me a wet-wipe and I started removing the makeup that I had on. “You know, Mr. Dresden, Daddy might not even be with Mom today.”

“Really?” Harry asked, rubbing at his wrist. That looked painful.

I nudged Molly after I finished wiping my makeup off. _Check his wrist._

“Yeah, I think he and Sanya were going to St. Louis. Denarian activity, or something,” I said, and I could see the shudder go through him.

“Any idea when he’ll be back?” Harry asked.

“No clue,” Molly said. “There something wrong?”

Harry grunted and waved the wrist around, swinging the free handcuff. Molly let out a low whistle. _That’s what you meant?_

I nodded. Molly smiled. “Hey, neat. Are you on the lam?”

“Is that why you’re hiding here in a treehouse? So you can’t be found by the cops?” I continued. I was pretty sure that wasn’t it, but I knew he’d been arrested before.

“No!” Harry responded, perhaps a bit too forcefully. Okay, definitely too forcefully. “It’s kind of a long story.”

Molly and I just looked at each other. “Ohhhh… Fun-time handcuffs, not bad-time handcuffs. It’s okay, we’ve got the gist.”

“No!” Harry protested a bit violently. “And how the hell would you two know anything about fun-time handcuffs anyway? You’re like ten.”

“Fourteen,” We weren’t going to let him live this down. Molly had some cuff keys in her bag though.

“Whatever, way too young.”

“Internet,” I said, nodding my head.

“Expanding the frontiers of adolescent knowledge,” Molly continued.

“By which she means we were bored one day,” I explained with a wink and approached Harry. I wasn’t sure this was such a good idea, but the man was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, so I didn’t necessarily have to touch his skin to do this.

“God I’m old.”

“Think of it as dignified,” I said and held out my hand for the ring of keys that Molly fished out of her backpack. She passed them to me, and I grabbed Harry’s wrist, shaking out a key to try in the cuffs. One of them would work, I’m certain.

“So, what’s the juicy details?” Molly asked. “Inquiring minds want to know. You could say ‘bleep’ instead of using the fun words if you want.”

“Not like he hasn’t heard me say them before though,” I added. The first time I met Harry Dresden, I was probably about seven years old, and my first couple thoughts were quite simple. The first thought was that Harry Dresden was probably the tallest man I’d ever meet. The second thought was “Holy fuck, it’s Harry Dresden.” In retrospect, saying that last thought out loud near my mother had been a bad idea.

“Where the bleep did you get a bunch of cuff keys?” Harry asked Molly.

“Think about that for a second,” Molly said. “Do you really want to know?

Now, it really wasn’t as bad as it sounded when Molly said that. She’d gotten them from Glenn, when he’d brought a pair of cuffs to school one day to mess with. One thing led to another, and Molly and I ended up cuffed together, and we’d had to figure out which key was the one that’d let us out. Glenn, that dick, had been laughing too hard to be any sort of help, so Molly confiscated the keys, and the cuffs.

“So, what’s going on between you and Susan?” I asked, preempting his answer.

“Why do you want to know?”

“Vicarious living,” I said. “Makes me happy when others are happy.”

“Romance,” Molly said. “Plus I heard Mom say you two were a pretty hot item.”

“Your mom said that?” Harry sounded surprised.

“Not in so many words, really. She used words like ‘fornication,’ ‘sin,’ ‘infantile depravity,’ and some other words,” I said as I tried another key, frowning. “Oh, and there was ‘moral bankruptcy’ too. So you can see why we’d think that.”

“Ah… what?” Harry seemed confused.

“Are you a hot item with Susan?” Molly asked.

Harry sighed, shrugging. “Not anymore.”

“If you’d keep your wrist still, I could get your cuff,” I said, trying another key. Damn, not this one either. “So, why not?”

“It’s just... It’s complicated.” Harry’s voice sounded dejected.

“Ah.” Molly and I said, and then the next key clicked off the cuff. Letting go of his wrist, I commented, “There we go.”

I tossed Molly the keys, and then Molly came over to pick a piece of paper off the ground. I looked at it at the same time as her. “Ask Michael about duel, whiskey, tobacco.”

“One hell of a shopping list,” I commented, looking to Harry. “So, vampire thing? That the reason for you and Susan?”

“Was there a PBS special or something? An unauthorized biography of my life?” Okay, now that was exasperation.

“I snuck downstairs so I could listen to Daddy tell Mom what had happened.” Molly said, “And then I told Faith this morning.”

“Do you…” It looked like Harry couldn’t decide which thing to question.

“People watch what they say in public too much.” Molly shrugged. “And I tell Faith everything that matters.”

“Even when I don’t want to hear it,” I added. “So, splitting up, how was it complicated?”

Harry really seemed to like shrugging. “Her condition gives her - an impulse-control problem,” Harry said, sadly. “She said that strong emotions and uh, other feelings, are dangerous for her. She could lose control and hurt someone.”

“And if you were the cause of those strong emotions, that someone could be you,” I said. “Sad that the two of you can’t really have se—”

“Ahp ergh… You are far too young to say that word.” Who knew Harry was a prude? I mean, both Molly and I were still virgins, but sex wasn’t exactly an age thing.

“What word?” Molly asked. “Sex?”

“Gah!” Harry actually covered his ears. I couldn’t believe it.

_Geeze, this is…_ I shrugged.

“So the bleep part would make her lose control. And bite you. And become a vampire.” Molly’s grin could melt butter.

Harry coughed, and lowered his hands. “Basically, yeah.”

“So tie her up, cuff her. If she can’t move to get at you, she can’t drain you,” I said. “I mean, I don’t know if these cuffs would work, but you’re a wizard aren’t you?”

“This conversation has become way too bleeping disturbing,” Harry said, and Molly and I both just started giggling.

I looked out the window to see Mom’s van approaching. “Hey, looks like they’re here. Maybe Daddy’s with them, Harry.”

“Hope so. Don’t know what I’ll do otherwise.” Harry descended the ladder first, and once he was clear, I followed down, Molly following me. The three of us made our way to the front as Mom pulled up into the driveway.

Mom stepped out of the car, and she didn’t look all that happy that Molly and I were standing there with Harry, but it wasn’t that big a deal. Mom really just didn’t like Harry all that much. Molly and I headed toward the side door of the car, to help Mom by getting the little ones out.

“Faith! Molly!” Amanda yelled out with glee. She must have picked out her outfit this morning because that was the only way I could see her ending up in both the orange sweater and pink dress. She wore a red coat and purple shoes as well. “I’ve gotta show you!”

“Show us what, squirt?” I asked.

“Not a squirt. I’m a princess,” Amanda declared imperiously, and Molly unbuckled her from the safety belt, taking her into her arms.

“Right, come with me, princess,” Molly said as she picked Amanda up and stepped out of the van, lowering her to the driveway.

“I’ve got Hope, Moll,” I called out to her, and I heard Amanda greet Harry as I was unlocking Hope’s seatbelt. Buckled up front was my youngest brother, Harry, sleeping in his car seat. Shiro was getting out of the van.

“And I’ve got him,” Shiro said.

“Shiro, after you talk with Mr. Dresden, I’d like to talk with you,” I said, picking up my youngest sister.

“Of course, Faith. What about?” Shiro continued working the safety mechanism holding my brother in.

“It’ll come up then.” I needed to keep him alive. I wanted to learn how to use a sword from him. Hopping out of the van, youngest sister in hand, I lowered her to the ground.

I heard Amanda mention something about having a Harry already. She called Harry Dresden, “Bill.” That drawing of hers from the previous day… Had it had something to do with the wizard? I’d have to take a look at it to see if I could be sure.

I went to grab a bag of groceries, and Hope followed behind me. “Come on, Hope.” I headed inside, grocery bag in hand, passing by Harry in doing so. Hope hid behind me as we passed, but she looked at him a few times. I wasn’t entirely sure if she was curious or scared. At four, she might have just been shy.

I brought the bag of groceries in and placed it on the table. Immediately, I turned around to go grab some more bags. I wished Mom would get the plastic bags instead of the paper. Those were easy to grab multiples of, but instead with these sacks, the most I could grab were two. Multiple trips were the norm, even with the help of my sister, Harry and Shiro. We did manage to get the entire van unloaded within about three minutes though. Mom, meanwhile, had been putting the groceries away as we brought them in.

Once all the perishables had managed to be put away, Mom fixed up a bottle of formula and passed it to me. Molly grabbed the diaper bag, and I grabbed my youngest brother. We ended up going to the living room, where I could feed Harry without issue.

“So, what do you think they’re talking about in there?” Molly asked, quietly. We might have been the only ones in the living room, but Amanda and Hope could have come barreling in at any minute. Danny and Mattie were probably on their way home too. They’d probably make it before Harry left. The larger, that is.

“Probably the duel. Harry needs a second,” I said. “Thomas is going to be the second for Harry’s opponent.”

“That’s the White Court guy you met last night, right?” Molly asked. At my nod, she continued. “With how he acted, is that...”

“Not really. I don’t think.” Harry stirred in his car seat, so I unbuckled him and lifted him up. Damn, he was getting big, but he was definitely hungry. Lucky for me, he was just giggly, not crying.

“So this is what…” Molly trailed off when I shook my head.

“I don’t know. It could be, but I don’t know.” I moved Harry so I could better feed him. This had been easier when he was younger. Soon enough, he’d be on solid food.

“We need to…” Molly winced slightly as the smell of iodine wafted into the room.

I nodded, suppressing my own wince. Iodine stung a lot, and given how messed up Harry was, he probably was the recipient. _When Shiro gets off the phone and tells Harry, I’ll talk to him._

Molly nodded. _Good plan._

“… I need to call Thomas afterward, too.” The bottle was nearly empty at this point. Greedy little Jawa. “Need to see what he wanted to talk about that he didn’t last night.”

“Maybe he’ll be apologizing,” Molly said. “Least he could do.”

I shrugged. I had a nagging feeling that I knew what he was going to want to talk about, and as I burped my little brother, my mind went to it. The Reds last night had to have been after something more than a quick bite. If they wanted food, they could have gone anywhere other than a basement of a library. They wanted the findings of that Venatori Umbrorum member. The question was, why? And how did they know that it was there?

I really didn’t know, but I was certain there was something I was missing here about the Venatori Umbrorum. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. Maybe Thomas had some answers, and I intended on finding out. After my talk with Shiro, of course. I needed to see if I could save that man’s life.

  



	13. Chapter Twelve

Mom must have recruited Harry to help her prepare dinner, as the smell of stew started to percolate through the household. My little brother, Harry, was happily giggling, and I placed him down on the ground in the living room. Shiro probably was calling Thomas or whoever he needed to call on Harry’s behalf when acting as his second, and that meant that soon enough, I’d get my chance to talk with him. Shiro was good to his word, as were all of the Knights.

I knelt down next to Harry, and stacked some blocks in front of him. “You like the blocks, Harry?”

Harry picked up a block and stuffed it into his mouth, gnawing on it a bit. Molly laughed as she came over. “I’d say that’s a yes.”

“I’d say no to him to try and get him to stop,” I said, glancing down at him, “but he’s just adorable like that.”

Molly wrapped an arm around me. “Yeah, Danny and Mattie were like that too.”

“What happened?” I asked wryly, brushing a hand across Harry’s head and then gently pulling at the block he held in his mouth.

Molly giggled. “We could ask when they get home, I suppose.”

Harry stepped out of the kitchen, and he came over to sit on the couch.

“Mom boot you out here to wait?” I asked, looking over to the larger Harry from my position next to the smaller.

“Something like that. She didn’t want me bleeding all over her vegetables,” Harry said, waving a bandaged finger around. Ah, that explained the smell of iodine. It looked like Mom had also done some first aid on Harry’s other wounds too.

“Ow.” Molly winced. “Weren’t careful with the knife, were you?”

“I uh, got distracted.” Harry squirmed in his seat. Looking at him now, I could definitely see his relation to Thomas. He even had the same cute chee— Okay, let’s cut that thought off there. Thomas cheated, and I was in no way actually interested in him or Harry. Stupid sexy vampire, being all cheating and such. Molly might have been interested in Harry, which could easily explain why I could see how handsome he was, even under all the scruff. Nevermind that.

“So Mr. Dresden, can we call you Harry?” I asked.

“Your sister called me Bill,” Harry said wryly.

“Okay, Bill.” I smirked, and then shook my head. “Harry, don’t put that in your mouth.”

I pulled another block away from my younger brother’s mouth, and then reached out a hand. Molly placed the still half-full bottle into it, and I tried to get the nipple into his mouth. After a few tries, I managed to get it there, holding.

“Nice job, kid,” Harry said, clearly a little off. “Yeah, you can call me Harry. I’d actually prefer it.”

“Okay, Harry,” I said, still holding the bottle in place as my brother sucked at it. The little guy actually reached up to hold onto it himself, so I was just really stabilizing so it wouldn’t drop. “So, Harry, earlier, that was… magic, right? With the stick. I remember before…”

“Yeah, it was magic,” Harry affirmed, continuing, “my blasting rod, to be precise. I use it to help me direct my fire spells.”

“So you were going to shoot fire at me?” I asked, glancing back at him. My brother Harry had almost finished his bottle. Molly reached to take over holding it from me.

“No! Of course not,” Harry assured me. “I have better control than that. Nobody was home, and I was worried that something had happened…”

“So you lurked in the treehouse, and got ready to do artillery fire,” Molly said. “Seems like a sound plan.”

I shook my head. “Let’s… change the subject a little. I don’t really want to know how you got in those cuffs this morning or got those injuries.”

“Okay, that’s probably a good idea,” Harry agreed.

“So what’s it like?” Molly asked. “Using magic, I mean.”

Harry actually smiled a bit, and it emphasized his need to shave. “Magic… using magic is probably one of the best things in the world, but it can be dangerous.”

“Oh, how so?” I asked, genuinely curious. Getting Harry’s point of view on this could be invaluable, even if we weren’t going to ask him for training.

“Well, when I do magic, I’m messing with the basic force of the universe,” Harry said. “I’m dealing with life itself, and if I’m not respectful of that, it could backfire.”

“Huh,” Molly and I commented in unison. “That’s actually really pretty.”

Harry blinked. “That, on the other hand, is a little creepy.”

Molly and I locked eyes with each other, smiling. We weren’t going to take this too far, but Harry definitely deserved a bit of needling for calling us creepy. We turned our heads back to Harry, our smiles getting a bit wider. “So, we’re creepy, are we?”

“Okay, now that’s actually a little worse,” Harry said, visibly shuddering. We weren’t sure whether he was actually creeped out or if he was teasing us, but we could do this all day if we wanted.

“So, Harry, what did you mean by it backfiring?” We alternated mid-sentence. Speaking in unison for everything wasn’t quite what we wanted. Besides, Harry had things we could learn.

“Well,” Harry began, after shuddering once more. “Basically, to do something with magic, I have to believe not only that I can, but that I am right to be doing it. If I were to do something that went against that belief, it would either not work, or it’d backfire.”

We nodded. That made some sense. We’d wanted to get away from the situations we found ourselves in, and then things had happened. We’d wanted to be closer to each other, believed we should be closer to each other, and stuff happened. We still weren’t sure how to actually do anything on purpose, but perhaps we could figure this out with that starting point. “Ah… Okay. How could it backfire though?”

Harry frowned a little, looking at us. We weren’t sure what was going through the wizard’s head, but he never got a chance to voice anything as Mom stepped into the room, first smiling at us and our younger brother, but switching to a frown when looking at Harry. “Mr. Dresden, I would appreciate it if you waited for Shiro in the dining room.”

The office door opened, and Shiro stepped out, holding a piece of paper. We closed our eyes, taking Harry’s statement to heart, and I opened mine.

“Looks like he won’t have to wait, Mom,” I said, and I stood up, picking up my little brother in the process. “Okay, you’re a little stinky, aren’t you, Harry?”

Molly grabbed the diaper bag, and behind her, I could see Harry standing to walk over to Shiro. “Here, I’ll take care of it.”

I smiled at my sister and passed Harry to her. “I’ve got next time, I guess.”

Mom watched as Molly went off, and then she turned to me. “So, how was school today? Did anything interesting happen?”

Well. Mom usually only asked that of the younger kids these days, but occasionally something came up and she asked Molly or I. I… didn’t want to tell her about the magic use, but the fire was something that could probably have happened either way. It wasn’t like I was getting blamed for it anyway. “Uh… you could say that, Mom.”

“Something like a fire?” Mom asked. Great, she knew, but she didn’t when she got home, otherwise she’d have brought it up then. She also couldn’t have gotten a call about it earlier, otherwise she’d have picked Molly and I up, and we’d be having an entirely different conversation.

“Ah, yeah… I’m okay though!” I affirmed quickly. “I just got a little wet. We got out of the room before anything could happen.”

Mom pulled me into a hug. “I know you were going to tell me, but the school should have called to let us know at least. I need to speak with your principal and tell him that these procedures are just unacceptable.”

I leaned into the hug a bit. I didn’t like Mom worrying about me, and I honestly tried to keep her from worrying. Unfortunately, there were situations that I had been through and things that I might go through that’d have Mom worry. “It wasn’t really that bad. They got the fire contained…”

“But they still should have let the parents know,” Mom said as she stroked my hair. Her voice lowered a bit. “I don’t want to lose you, Faith.”

In an equally low voice, I responded, “You won’t, Mom.”

She released the hug as Harry started walking away from Shiro. “Well, everyone, thank you for having me. Shiro, I’ll see you around seven?”

Shiro nodded, and we walked Harry out to the door. As he opened it, Danny, Mattie and Alicia came dashing into the house. Harry had to wait before going out to his car, the beat-up Bug that I saw earlier. It might have been blue once, but now the driver’s side door was green, and the hood was red, clearly taken from a different VW Bug. Additionally, it looked like the hood wasn’t securely on the car, maybe held on by hanger wire. Still, when Harry got into it, (an admittedly comical sight, someone that tall getting into a car that small) he was able to start it up and drive away.

Mom ushered the rest of us inside, and she went to go talk with the younger kids about their day. Of course, she touched my arm, letting me know she cared before she led them inside. Molly held Harry, whose diaper was now clean, up so he could look around. She nodded to me, and I smiled.

“Faith, let us go in to the office,” Shiro said, leaning on his cane. He started toward Daddy’s office, and I followed. Luckily Daddy kept the computer turned off when not in use; I didn’t want to chance busting that too.

Daddy’s office was mostly pristinely organized. The desk that held his computer had a few papers and blueprints laying on it, and the bulletin board on the wall held the latest revision of some building’s design. Additionally, the desk held a family photo that I remembered posing for, last year. It had been around Christmas time, and we were all dressed in red and green sweaters, and Molly had talked me into wearing a skirt to match hers that day. Our grandmother took the photo, and we’d all been pretty happy. Additionally, there was a phone connected to the landline outside.

“So, Faith,” Shiro said as he pulled up the rolling chair at the desk. I really did love those things, and occasionally when Daddy and Mom weren’t home, I’d come into the office and sit down in it, spinning around until I got sick. It got really fun when Molly and I had competitions to see who could spin in it longest, but that’s not what I was in here to do. “What did you want to talk about?”

I closed the door to the office and took my own seat in a, sadly, regular chair that Daddy kept in there. “Shiro, I really…”

I really didn’t know how to start this out. This man, I knew was going to die, if I did nothing, and I needed to do what I could to prevent it. Seeing him here, though, setting up to talk, I just… I couldn’t help it. I didn’t want Shiro to die. I wanted him to live, to have Shiro stay with us, and I couldn’t help it. My eyes, my body, I don’t know, myself… I just, he was… I sobbed, burying my face in the Japanese man’s shoulder. “Shiro… I… Shiro… you…”

“Faith, it is okay…” He wrapped a hand around me and patted my back. He laid down his cane and brought the other up to cup against my hair.

“No… you’re going to die…” I sobbed into his shoulder. “I don’t want you to die, Shiro…”

“Faith,” Shiro said softly. “Everybody dies. Few have something worth dying for.”

I blinked away some tears and pulled back. “Shiro?” Did he know? I hadn’t told him. I hadn’t told anyone, but two people now knew other than me. Ivy knew, and Molly did. Shiro couldn’t have known.

“There you are.” Shiro smiled warmly at me, but I purposefully didn’t meet his eyes. I didn’t want to have him look upon my imperfect soul. “Now tell me. What has you so worked up about me dying?”

“Shiro, Nicodemus Ar—” Shiro clasped his hand over my mouth and looked around.

“Faith, you should not know that name,” Shiro said, still looking. “We should be protected in here, but you should not say that aloud.”

I nodded, and Shiro removed his hand from my mouth. “Nico- Nick, he’s going to capture Harry and put a curse on him with that noose of his. Before you say something about Harry staying out of this, he’s _Harry Dresden_. Daddy has stories about how stubborn that man is.”

“Faith, how do you know these things?” Shiro asked, quietly, and I sighed, choking down another sob. I would not get worse about this. I needed to see this through.

“Memories. Fleeting memories of books read long ago…” I trailed off and sniffled. I didn’t want him to die. I could see him thinking. Shiro always seemed to be observant, and he knew things about everything. His conversion story made me laugh every time I heard it, and I really didn’t want him gone.

“Masaka…” Shiro said softly. “Reincarnation? Faith, you remember a past life?”

I nodded, not trusting myself to talk without crying. Shiro had been the one to teach Daddy swordsmanship, and occasionally when he was here, he’d teach Molly and I some. It wasn’t fair that he was going to die soon.

“And in that life, you had visions of this one?” Shiro asked.

“Books…” I murmured. “Fiction. This was all fiction… But it’s not… It’s real and you’re real and I’m real and I don’t want you to die…”

“That time you ran away,” Shiro nodded as if realizing something. “Faith, how did I die?”

“You traded yourself for Harry, taking the curse upon yourself,” I said, shuddering. “And then, Nick kills you somehow. I can’t remember how…”

Shiro patted my back again. “I am sorry that you are burdened with this knowledge.”

“Shiro?” I questioned him, and he brought a hand up to brush a tear out of my eye.

“We all have crosses we must bear, Faith. Your burden is heavier than many.” Shiro reached down and picked up his cane, his sword. He then held it out to me. “Take it, Faith.”

I shook my head. “It’s… It’s not for me.”

He laughed. “Take it, please.”

I nodded, and gulping, took hold of the hilt of _Fidelacchius_. Upon just touching the hilt, I could feel… something. A warmth, really, radiating both from the blade and resonating with something within me. It… it was special, but I knew it wasn’t for me. Shiro let go of the cane, so that I could hold it entirely.

“Now unsheathe it, Faith,” Shiro ordered, and I followed, pulling the katana from within its cane-like sheath. The blade glimmered in the light of the office, and the resonant warmth grew. However, it did not glow with holy power, and instead it just was a very sharp, very special weapon. It must have been folded at least twelve times, and the pommel had a single kanji character on it. I knew it meant “Faith.”

“Shiro… why am I doing this?” I asked. “I mean, I’m not a Knight, and I don’t think that this sword should be going to me.”

Shiro smiled, and held his two hands flat. I sheathed the blade and laid it in his hands. “There may come a time, Faith, where that will change. Faith, do you know why I fight?”

I shook my head. “Not because you enjoy it…” I sniffled again. While holding that blade had definitely helped a bit, I still felt like I’d break down if given the chance.

“No, I hate fighting, but sometimes it is necessary. What I enjoy is being able to protect people, and I will be able to do so.” Shiro ran his hand over _Fidelacchius_ ’ sheath. “There is no greater honor than dying doing something you love. Everyone must die, Faith.”

“But… I don’t want…” Shiro shushed me, placing a finger over my lips.

“Faith, I have accepted this. It is necessary,” Shiro said. “You will need to accept it yourself for the path you are about to walk.”

He knew. He knew that he was going to die, and he knew something about what was going on with Molly and I. “But how?”

“My position allows for some semblance of foresight,” Shiro said. “I will not tell your parents, Faith, but I must urge you caution.”

Wait, what? He knew, but he wasn’t going to tell. Maybe he wanted us to tell our parents ourselves, but that he was even going to give that option… “I… Yeah. I’ll be careful.”

“Your sister as well. I do not know what the future has in store for the two of you, but you will need to be ready to face it. Including my death,” Shiro said, standing up. “Now, I will give you some time to collect yourself, Faith. Please, do not tell Michael or Sanya about this. They would try to prevent it.”

I nodded, blinking away some more tears. Shiro made his way out of the room, and I moved into the chair he was sitting in. He had accepted his death. He had _known_ about his death and he knew about Molly and I. He had been surprised that I knew about his death… I really didn’t know anymore. I didn’t want him to die, but… I didn’t know if it was possible to save him. Without Shiro’s help, I didn’t think it was.

You couldn’t save the unwilling. I sniffled, and wiped my face. I needed to calm down. It really wouldn’t do to walk out of here with tears running down my face. Sighing, I got up and closed the door before returning to the rolling chair. I spun around to face the desk, trying to force myself calmer. In the back of my head, I felt some waves of comfort, and they helped some. Molly always was looking out for me. I needed the calm for what I was about to do next.

It was time to call the vampire and see what the hell he wanted with the book.

  



	14. Chapter Thirteen

It took a good ten minutes for me to get myself anywhere close to calm enough to do what I needed to next. I might not have been able to help Shiro… to… No, I wasn’t going to focus on that. Shiro made his choice, and I would have to respect it. Instead, I needed to focus upon what was coming, and how it would affect me. How it would affect Molly and the rest of the family. The letter written in where I’d found the book indicated that it was a book full of rituals to channel this… being. The letter had mentioned something about standard White Council procedure regarding books like this. It implied that doing it would weaken the advantage given from this book, which implied further that it was one of a kind.

Ritual magic. I really didn’t remember much about it from my past life, other than something about a vending machine, but I could guess. Rituals probably called upon another being’s magic rather than the caster’s own to do certain things. Maybe each ritual was designed to do something different, but each ritual cast also allowed for a being to interact with the world. Of course, the being probably had a limit to how much power it could use at a time, and if a bunch of different people were calling it up at once, it was like a bunch of different pipes coming from a single reservoir. It made some sense, I suppose. Rituals could be used for any number of nefarious applications that I could imagine, and probably a bunch of different ones that I couldn’t. So the White Council approach, which probably was copying the book, would probably help.

Fuck. White Council. That was a name that I’d hoped I wouldn’t be hearing for a while yet. Given what I’d read in my last life, I wasn’t entirely sure I wanted to deal with them, even if Harry was a card-carrying member. I honestly couldn’t remember much about them or their members, but what little I did remember I wasn’t entirely sure I liked. They were at war with the Red Court, a war started due to the actions Harry took when he last asked Daddy to help him on a case. Susan Rodriguez, Harry’s ex-“Hot Item,” was taken and Harry wanted to get her back. Unfortunately, she got infected by the Reds, and well, Harry’s unfortunate love life remains unfortunate. I also remembered that the Council had something to do with the laws of magic. Don’t kill, don’t fuck with people’s heads, don’t… other stuff. Something to do with Outer Gates and Outsiders. I remembered the consequences for breaking these laws were typically lethal… in a “We will murder you” way. Fuck. I’d need to find out what these laws were so Molly and I didn’t break them by accident. Lord, I hoped that I hadn’t already broken one.

Fuck. White Council. The name was familiar, but what was it? The letter implied a war with the Red Court, given that the book would help with the war effort, and… Harry’s duel. Harry was a member of the White Council, which meant it was something to do with wizards. Okay. White Council equals wizards, and if they were anything like the Watcher’s Council on Buffy, they were also made up of mostly dicks. Good to know. I was kidding, of course, but without further reference, the only thing I could think of as a comparison was that. I knew the White Council had something to do with how the wizards here were governed, something about laws of magic. In a way, this is how the Watcher’s Council behaved on Buffy, governing the actions of the Slayer. Don’t kill with magic, mess with people’s heads, and… there were more laws, but I didn’t remember them all. Hell, I wasn’t sure I remembered everything about the world I was in. That probably came with growing up again. Like everything else.

Stalling… I was stalling. I drummed my hands against the desk and breathed out a sigh. I needed to make this phone call, and find out what Thomas knew. He’d obviously been there looking for something, and he’d noticed the Reds were there as well. I don’t think he expected me to be there. No, he probably expected someone else… maybe the person that the Reds killed.

I picked up the phone, and started to dial, prefacing my call with the number that hid from Caller ID. I didn’t want anyone who saw Thomas’s phone to know where he was getting a call from, nor did I want anyone to be able to trace this call back here, to my family. It was bad enough that Shiro had to call a number to be Harry’s second.

Placing the receiver against my ear, I listened. One ring. Two rings. Three rings. On the fourth ring, a man’s voice came out of the speaker. “Hello?”

“T-Thomas Raith?” Damn. I needed to get that under control. He was a vampire, and he wasn’t someone I should act like some lovesick schoolgirl over. Fucking hell. Stupid sexy vampire.

“Yes, this is. Who’s asking?” Thomas asked, sounding a bit different from how I remembered him the night before. A bit distracted.

“Faith. Faith Carpenter,” I said quickly. “We met last night.”

“Oh, Jenny! It’s so good to hear from you again. Yes, we simply must meet up tonight,” Thomas said, his voice practically flamboyant. I really didn’t know what he was playing at, but...

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

“Oh, Jenny, you don’t have to worry about me,” Thomas said. “Of course, we’ll talk more when we meet up tonight.”

“Okay…” I dragged out the syllable there, and then I added, “Where and when do you want to meet up?”

“Oh, there’s this lovely little coffee shop on Sixth and Main, perfect for us to have our talk at. I can’t come earlier than nine though, I have some family business I need to attend to.” Thomas laughed. “Of course you can bring the signed book, I’d love to see it.”

I… hadn’t actually said anything that time, but the White Court vampire had given a time and a place. “Right, I’ll be there.”

“Good, good. I’d love to see you, Jenny,” Thomas said. “Can’t wait for you to get there.”

Then there was a click and silence for a few seconds before I got the dial tone. I hung the phone up, frowning. Thomas had been using a name not my own, and this was likely for a pretty good reason, not that I knew the specifics. Okay. Coffee shop at Sixth and Main, I could do that. It was a fairly public place, and given that it was a Friday night, there was very little chance that it wouldn’t be crowded. Of course, with Thomas being a part of the Raith family, he could potentially just rent it out for the evening so that we’d be the only ones there. I wasn’t sure he’d do that to a coffee shop, but the possibility was there.

A knock at the office’s door interrupted my musings.

“Faith, are you in there?” My little brother Danny’s voice came through the door. Danny, that is to say, Daniel, was in middle school, and he was about as smart as Molly and I.

“Yeah, I’m in here, Danny,” I called out from my position. Danny opened the door, and my dark-haired younger brother came inside. He was dressed in jeans and a polo shirt, and despite his age, he looked like he could probably run a marathon with ease. I blame Daddy.

“Hey, you said you’d help me with my math homework, but you weren’t here last night,” Danny said. I’d nearly forgotten about that. Hell, I _had_ forgotten.

“Fu-Fudge, I forgot. Sorry, Danny. Is there still time to do it?” I asked, not entirely sure whether I’d be able to help him properly. If he needed to use a calculator for example, I wasn’t entirely sure I wouldn’t break it simply by being near it.

“We have until Tuesday to finish these sets,” Danny replied. “It’s not exactly an easy set of problems, Faith.”

“We’ll see about that,” I said, determination holding. I had some time yet before I had to go see Thomas, and if I helped Danny out, maybe I could think about something to tell Mom that wouldn’t exactly be a lie but wouldn’t have her chasing me all over town. “What ones are you having trouble with? Maybe I can help explain…”

Danny was in Algebra I and in Seventh Grade. In two years, he’d be joining Molly and I at our school, but right now, he, Mattie and Alicia went to St. Mary’s Primary School. Like I’d said before, my brother was pretty smart, but he didn’t always grasp the math on the first try. He did seem to like my explanations better than his teacher’s though. As for why we were working on his homework on a Friday afternoon rather than just enjoying things, well this way we didn’t have to worry about it on Sunday, which was reserved for Church and family activities.

Once I was sure that Danny grasped the concepts, I stood up from the spinning chair and sat him down in it. “Here you go, Danny. Use Daddy’s desk to finish the homework. I’ll look it over tomorrow.”

“Thanks, Faith.” Danny smiled at me. It always felt nice to help my siblings when they needed it, even if sometimes they could be brats that needed to be taken down a peg. No, I wasn’t bitter about anything. We’d gotten Danny and Mattie back for it so there was no need for me to be bitter.

I stepped outside the office, and I nearly tripped over Hope and Amanda as they ran across the hallway. “Whoa! Slow down, you two…”

“You were in there a while,” Molly said, stepping around the corner. “You okay?”

“Danny needed some help with his homework that I didn’t give last night.” I shrugged.

“That’s not an answer, Fai.” Molly frowned, coming over to me and leading me to the couch.

“I can’t…” I swallowed. I would _not_ start crying again. I wouldn’t. “Shiro’s okay with it. He knows and he’s accepted it.”

Molly blanched. “I… I guessed… You were feeling… I guessed that was what caused it.”

“Yeah.” I sighed. “Nothing we can do. D—”

“Don’t. Mom will hear,” Molly said, cutting me off. “So what about that phone call?”

“He gave a time and place. Sixth and Main, tonight around nine,” I answered, glad for the change in subject. “He called me Jenny.”

“Wow, couldn’t even get your middle name right,” Molly snarked. “So, when are we going to leave?”

“We?” I asked, disbelieving.

“Did you really think I’d let you go face down a vampire on your own?” Molly asked rhetorically. “We face things together, remember? For better or worse.”

“Forever as one.” I replied, automatically. Damnit.

***************

Molly and I had changed before we left the house. While the long skirt and sweater were lovely to wear when going to church or going to some sort of family function, they didn’t quite have the utility needed for our plans that evening. Frankly, if we were planning on doing our normal Friday activity, Molly and I would have needed to change; we really didn’t want a repeat of the last time we went to the game shop in super conservative clothing. So I have a tiny bit of a temper when it comes to family. Sue me.

For tonight’s plans, we needed something that would allow us to be mobile yet keep us warm, given the weather. Molly and I grabbed matching outfits, a blouse and jacket over some decently thick jeans. She wore blue, and I wore pink with the reverse for the colors of our jackets. Given the expected weather forecast, we also wore our boots. We needed to be able to move in case the worst were to happen. Honestly, I considered raiding the armory for a couple blades, but I didn’t really want to have to explain to the nice police officers what a couple of minors were planning on doing with live steel walking through the streets of Chicago. Daddy got enough of a chance of that happening as it was.

Molly tied her hair back into a ponytail and turned to me. “So, how exactly are we going to get past Mom?”

I pursed my lips. That was a good question. Given that Daddy and Sanya were out, and Shiro was going to be with Harry, Mom might not have wanted to let us out of the house that evening for safety’s sake. Then again, we were somewhat responsible teens, and Mom had let us out a few times when she maybe shouldn’t have. “Well, let’s tell her we’re going to go play magic. We’ll call her after our talk with Thomas and let her know we’re getting a ride home.”

Molly nodded. “That might work, but what if she doesn’t want us to go out and play Magic tonight?”

“Then we’ll probably have to sneak out, and that’s trickier given the time that Thomas wants to meet,” I said, running a hand through my hair.

“Maybe we can convince the jawas to get her to take them to see a movie or something. And maybe we could get Mom to drop us by the game shop,” Molly mused. “Then we could just walk from there. Saves on bus fare.”

I nodded. “That might work. Mom needs something to take her mind off of Daddy anyway. He’ll get home safe.” _I hope._

“Of course, if we take the bus—” Molly said.

“We could talk a bit more about this…” I continued and nodded. “Was hoping that—”

“We could hit up Barnes and Noble tomorrow.” Molly wrapped an arm around my shoulder, and I leaned on her a bit. “Not a bad plan. Things like this—”

“Require research.” I adjusted my jacket and glanced to the door. “Kinda dipping in and out aren’t we?”

“Little bit,” Molly replied. “But it feels so—”

“Right…” I sighed wistfully. “So, bus if—”

“We can convince Mom, yeah.” Molly and I loaded up our bags with our competitive decks. Even if we weren’t actually going to play Magic, it wouldn’t hurt to have them on us. Molly used the bag that contained some of our collection, and I used my school bag. “So, let’s try.”

When we headed downstairs, it didn’t take a genius to find Mom in the kitchen. She was stirring the stew in the Crock Pot. She looked to us when we entered the kitchen. “Just where do you two think you’re going?”

“Magic,” I said.

“It’s Friday,” Molly added, hoping to link the concepts in her mind to our usual card tournament.

Mom frowned, but she hadn’t started lecturing or yelling yet, so maybe this was going to work.

“Girls,” she started. Damnit. “Your father is out at the moment, and he is risking his life. While he is doing this, you want to go play a card game?”

I shrugged, preparing to answer, but before I could, I was interrupted. “Michael and Sanya will be fine, Charity. Let them have their fun.”

The look on Mom’s face… Well, I think if it had been anyone but Shiro who said that, she probably would have glared at them. As it was, she simply looked at the Japanese man for a few seconds before sighing. “Okay. You know the rules though. Call home no later than ten-thirty. If you’re able to get a ride from someone, let me know. Otherwise, I’ll come and pick you up.”

I hugged Mom, feeling a bit sorry for the omission. I’d have to talk about that during my next Confession. “We will, Mom.”

“Promise,” Molly said. “If it’s running really late, we’ll make sure to let you know too.”

I let go of the hug and walked over to Shiro to give him the same. I managed to not burst into tears this time, which I counted as an achievement, even if he was about to… I really needed to not think about that. Molly placed a hand on my back, and we headed out of the house toward the bus stop, bags in hand.

It wasn’t long before we managed to get on the bus and to the coffee shop. Molly and I didn’t really feel the need to talk too much as we went, making small talk about how we wanted our decks to play and what we wanted out of the next Magic set. Talk shifted to fighting techniques, and then what would be most effective against fictional supernatural creatures. We both decided that Daddy’s _Amoracchius_ would be an unfair advantage and it needed to be off the table with these discussions. Mortal weapons had limits, sure, but they’d work against most things, and we could always add fire.

The bus pulled up to Sixth Ave, and we needed to walk from there to the coffee shop. It wasn’t that far from the store we typically played Magic at, _Heroes, Villains and Bystanders_ , but we weren’t really out there to play that evening. No, instead we passed by the shop, casually glancing in, I could see Drew signing up for the night’s Standard tournament. I hoped he won. He could use it.

We finally made it to the coffee shop, and we stepped inside. I glanced at the clock on the wall; we still had a couple hours before Thomas would arrive, so I went and got us a table while Molly got the drinks. I reached into my bag and pulled out the deck I had originally planned on playing tonight before this whole mess started. I thumbed through the cards until Molly came back with the drinks, hot cocoa for me, mocha latte for herself.

“So, what time did he say he’d be here?” Molly asked while I sipped my hot chocolate. Nectar of the gods, it was.

“Nine,” I said, taking another sip. “Hopefully he’s not too surprised with both of us here.”

“He’ll deal,” Molly said, reaching into her own bag and pulling out a deck. “Let’s pass the time.”

The two of us played Magic until about ten till, refilling our drinks only once, and then we felt it. Putting away our cards, we both turned toward the door and watched as… Well, it was Thomas, for certain, but what he was _wearing_ , I think could only be pulled off by him. He wore tight, white leather pants, a white leather jacket, and, I swallowed, a black fishnet shirt that clung to his muscles. Fucking hell, I don’t think he was even actively trying, but that man was impossibly distracting.

He waltzed into the coffee shop, practically thrumming with energy, and he jauntily walked over to the counter to order. I swear the barista was blushing as she took his order, and the girl tried to give it to him for free. Not that he didn’t deserve every single free thing that he could get for just gracing the room with his—

I stomped my own foot, and then I grabbed Molly’s hand. She shook herself out of it, and glanced back at the White Court Vampire. _Wow. That’s… wow._

I nodded. Stupid sexy vampire was just… there, and if he’d been any other stupid sexy vampire, it might have been worse. _I know._

I still don’t know how Thomas managed to pull off the Elvis look, but he did, and it worked. He glanced over to our table and blinked a couple times. A smile came unbidden to my lips; his eyes were… Fucking hell. He’s a vampire. He might be friendly, but he still was a vampire. He might have been Harry’s brother, but that did not, in fact, make him not a vampire.

Thomas got his drink and came over to our table. “Is this seat taken?”

I swear, I heard a number of audible sighs as I shook my head and he sat down. He looked first at Molly, and then he looked at me, studying the two of our faces. I shook my head. “Thomas, could you please… take it down a notch?”

He raised a perfectly arched eyebrow, but the feeling abated somewhat. “Twins. I expected just Faith alone, not a set of twins.”

Molly shook her head. “Like I was going to let Faith come alone after last night?”

Thomas nodded. “Smart. Thomas Raith, and you are?”

“Molly, Faith’s twin.” Molly held out her hand, but then she thought better of it and retracted it. “So, what did you want to talk to Faith about?”

“That _was_ going to be between myself and your sister, but I know twins. You’ll find out soon afterward,” Thomas said.

“So, what’s this about a book?” I asked.

“It has to do with why I was there last night,” Thomas said. “The book that my contact found is important, and it’s best that we not let it fall into unsavory hands.”

“What about the White Council method?” I asked, not confirming that I had the book in question.

“No!” Thomas shouted, perhaps a bit too loud. “I mean, no. That wouldn’t be the right way to deal with it. Too many printings of this would be bad… We need to destroy it.”

I pursed my lips. Something about this tingled, but I didn’t know what. Molly saw my look, and she picked up the questioning. “Why Faith? Why not anyone else?”

“Because,” Thomas said, “she was there last night. The book was not where my contact mentioned it would be, and she was.”

This… was something. The letter mentioned something about the Venatori Umbrorum. Something was a little off about that. Venatori. Umbrorum. _Hunters of the Shadow_. Or perhaps instead, they were the _Shadows of the Hunters_. Which meant that there was a true hunter group out there.

“Venatori…” I murmured. “This has something to do with them…”

Thomas nearly dropped his coffee, but he recovered. He spoke then, his voice low and careful, “What do you know about that, Faith? Tell me, what do you know about the Oblivion War?”

  



	15. Chapter Fourteen

Well, if Thomas hadn’t been intending on telling us things before, I think I might have changed his mind with my unintentional statement. He’d wanted the book, admitted as much, and, I think if we’d just given him the book personally, that’d have been the end of our involvement. Still, I wasn’t entirely sure how much I could trust the White Court vampire without a bit more information, but I also wasn’t sure what this Oblivion War thing he was referring to was. I could probably guess. There had been a side story of the Dresden Files that had centered around Thomas’s point of view, but I’d only listened to the audiobook version of that. It was far easier to recall things I’d read over things I’d heard.

As I was about to speak, Thomas shook his head. “Never mind, that’s something we can discuss later, in the car.”

“But,” I paused, and I looked around. Some people stared at Thomas, talking to the two of us. Honestly, the vampire really didn’t look all that much older than we did, maybe in his early to mid-twenties if I had to judge an age based on physicality. Still, I knew Thomas was at least in his thirties, possibly older, but that didn’t mean much. The Oblivion War… what was it? “Okay. Wait… in the car?”

“Yes,” Thomas said. “There’s things that we need to talk about that aren’t really fit for prying ears, especially given your… Well, I suppose the question is, did you find the book last night?”

“The book that was in the room?” I asked.

“Yeah, she found it,” Molly added. “She even tried to… burn it in the fireplace last night.”

Thomas cocked his head, looking at me with a bit of pride. Pride… and God, I hoped his eyes didn’t just gain a slight sheen of silver. Okay, I was imagining it, as I looked down toward his lips. “So, the book’s gone then?”

I barked out a laugh. “Not quite. It was on my side table when we woke up this morning. No clue how it ended up there.”

Thomas pursed his lips. “Okay, this is something we should discuss else—”

Molly and I stiffened at the same time as Thomas. The door to the coffee shop opened, and holding the door was a familiar Hispanic man, standing next to a young looking woman, but it wasn’t the Batistes that caught our eyes. Instead, our attention was drawn to a dark-complected man passing through the door. Ordinarily, he shouldn’t have drawn our attention, with his average height, slightly-heavy build, with broad shoulders and a deep chest. His black hair was neatly brushed back out of his face, and he wore a black blazer with matching slacks and a scarlet silk shirt. He shouldn’t have drawn our attention, but something about him commanded it. I squeezed Molly’s hand, and we knew. This was a Red Court vampire, and worse, he was heading over to our table.

“Thomas, fancy running into you here,” he said, his voice carrying a hint of a Brazilian accent. “And you are with company… my apologies for interrupting you.”

His coterie consisted of Esmeralda and Esteban Batiste, along with three more that must have been vampires as well, all in their flesh masks. The other three were well-dressed men, resembling secret service agents.

“Paolo,” Thomas greeted the man in a lackadaisical tone. “I figured you would be returning to your town holding after that.”

The vampire’s nostrils flared, but he grinned in a way that didn’t reach his eyes. “Ah, but I had heard this place had coffee comparable to home. It is to be a long night tonight while I prepare for tomorrow. Introduce me to your companions?”

“These are Jenny and Jessica,” Thomas said, lazily waving. “Ladies, this is a friend of my family, Paolo Ortega.”

As the vampire took my hand in his, I felt a jolt of a sickening feeling that started in my stomach. He brought his hand up to his lips and placed a kiss on my hand, which started to tingle.

“A pleasure, sir…” I managed to force out. “Thomas, weren’t we…?” I trailed off and glanced toward the door.

“Ah yes, if you’ll excuse us, Paolo,” Thomas said, but the vampire still held onto my hand. That damn tingling feeling continued, though his lips no longer touched my skin.

“Ah, of course, Thomas.” He let go of my hand, and his eyes roved over my body. I repressed a shudder, as I knew what he looked like under his flesh. “You must bring them tomorrow night, if you can. They will be such lovely company during the game.”

“That will be up to my father, Paolo,” Thomas said. “They’re on their way to meet up with him.”

“But of course.” Duke Ortega stepped aside, and I grabbed my bag. Molly grabbed hers as well, and we stood up, heading outside, around the Batistes and the rest of the coterie. I wondered why they didn’t bring up that they knew who I was. He leaned in to whisper to Thomas, as we passed, “Your father’s taste in young practitioners is impeccable. Bring them tomorrow if you can.”

I shuddered as I made it outside alongside my sister. My hand still tingled, and worse, the tingling had moved up my arm a bit. Molly took my left hand in her right, and I nearly leaned on her as Thomas came out of the shop. I glanced back, and Ortega was busy talking to the barista, while the other vampires apparently were scoping some things out.

“Come on, let’s get going,” Thomas said, leading us away from the shop. Oh God, I hoped they didn’t… Oh God.

“Who was that?” Molly asked when we were half a block away from the shop, and hey, my arm was numb. The lights on that building over there were pretty. God, I needed to focus. Molly squeezed my hand.

“Duke Paolo Ortega,” Thomas answered, frowning at me. “And… Empty Night, he didn’t…”

“Didn’t what?” I asked, leaning on Molly a little. “I’m… okay. Little tingly though.”

“He did. A small dose, but he did.” Thomas practically growled. “Let’s get you two into the car, and we can go somewhere private to talk… and for Faith to rest some of that off.”

“Somewhere with a phone,” Molly said. “We need to let Mom know we’re going to be later, but we have a ride.”

“I have a cell phone in the car,” Thomas said. “Just… keep yourselves as focused as possible…”

Molly nodded, and I did too because it seemed like the right thing to do. Thomas led us to a white sports car, I didn’t recognize the make and model off-hand, but he opened the passenger side door for us. Molly helped me inside first, and then she climbed over top of me to sit between Thomas and me. I placed the bag between my feet.

Thomas climbed in and started the car. Initially, the car’s radio was blasting some loud, screaming metal, and I winced. The metal was too loud, and I just… Ah, that was much better. Thomas must have turned down the radio so we could talk.

“So, Oblivion War…” I started, though I’m sure my words were coming out slightly off. I felt like I’d been drinking a little, but leaning on Molly helped. Molly could keep the badness away. She did that for me… and I did that for her. “You wanted to know what I know?

Thomas drove down the street some, turning at a light, and then we were forced to stop at another. “Yes, I did ask that.”

“Not much,” I admitted. “Actually, really not anything. I mean, Oblivion War’s a funny name, isn’t it? I mean, how do you fight oblivion? You asked about it after I said Venatori by itself. Not Venatori Umbrorum. Which that lady’s letter said she was…”

Molly groaned a little and nudged me in the stomach. _Faith, focus._ “Just what did that Ortega guy give her, Thomas? I didn’t see him give anything.”

“Paolo Ortega is a Red Court vampire,” Thomas said, handsomely. He wasn’t really bad looking, but he was a vampire, and a guy. It really didn’t matter how good he looked, I’d stay far away from him and his evil incubus vampire ways. God, I hoped Drew wasn’t an incubus. That would suck. “Red Court vampires have a powerful narcotic in their saliva, Faith didn’t get a whole lot in her system, but, it looks like she got enough to react.”

“I’m fine, really…” I said, rubbing at the hand Ortega kissed. Sure, I was tingly and my head was all foggy, but this really wasn’t any worse than going to the dentist. Actually, it felt a lot better than the dentist. I closed my eyes, breathing in and out for a second. Focus. Focus. “So, the Oblivion War. It has something to do with the Venatori. Not the Venatori Umbrorum.”

Thomas grimaced. “I really wish you hadn’t guessed that. Even while under the influence.”

“Why?” Molly asked. “I mean, the Venatori Umbrorum thing can just be shortened to Venatori, right?”

I shook my head as something came back to me. “ _Shadow of the Hunters_ , not what they really think. The Venatori is a separate organization, hidden by the existence of the Umbrorum, unknown even to them. They hunt down rituals to certain beings…” I gasped. “And we’re not supposed to know as mortals. By finding out we know, Thomas has to kill us or recruit us.”

“I’m not going to kill you,” Thomas said. “I really don’t even want to recruit you, but you know… too much. How? Did you find it out during your time with the Archive last night?”

Ivy? He thought my time with Ivy was what gave me this knowledge? Maybe he thought she recruited me instead of just being the adorable little girl who likes otters and is the scariest smart girl I know. Molly nudged me, getting my focus back on track. It was hard, but I couldn’t… really…

“That, and she’s psychic,” Molly said. “Not like, read your mind, psychic, but she knows things.”

Molly, I could have kissed you, but I’d settle for just leaning against your shoulder some. Your hair was soft. It was so nice.

“Ah,” Thomas said, frowning. “That explains why you tried to destroy the book.”

“Didn’t work though,” I said, twirling my finger in Molly’s hair. “Didn’t even scorch the cover I put on it.”

Molly smacked my hand away, and I pulled it back, pouting. “Stop that, Fai. How long does this take to wear off?”

“The small dose should wear off in an hour or so,” Thomas said. “So, if the book didn’t get burned… you have it with you?”

“In my bag!” I cheerfully said, and I got up off of Molly’s shoulder to go open it and pull the book out. I unzipped my bag and started looking through. There were my two deck boxes, my binder, my notebook, my copy of _Through the Looking Glass_ sans cover, my uniform that was all cut up, my blue bra, my drawing pad, but I couldn’t, for the life of me, find the book that I’d placed the cover on. “Maybe not in my bag…”

Molly blinked. “What? Let me look.”

Wordlessly I handed over my backpack, and she dug through it, shortly coming to the same conclusion I did. We spoke to Thomas, “It’s gone. We don’t know where it is.”

The ritual book to Ja’re’be’wo’kay was nowhere to be found within my backpack, and I was high on vampire spit. The day had officially gotten worse.

**********************

The book was gone. Disappeared. Kaput. Poof. Whatever term I could use, the book had completely vanished from my backpack, and I could feel my heart pounding as I went through the bag another time. No, it still was gone, I couldn’t see it at all in there. I hadn’t taken it out of the bag since stuffing it in there this morning, so how the hell could it have been gone?

“If it’s not in there, it’s not in there, Faith,” Thomas said, keeping his eyes on the road.

“But it has to be in here,” I said, forcing myself to keep my words straight. “I put it in there, and I didn’t take it out. Maybe it’s just hiding. It’s a magic book that ended up on the side table from the fireplace. It jumped off of that bookcase and hit me in the head. No… It can’t be hiding in my head. Bag maybe, but if it’s hiding in my head, I’m not going to stick my head in a fire to destroy the book. That’d be stupid.”

Molly cleared her throat. “Yes, stupid. Fai, calm down. It’s okay.”

“I can’t be calm, Moll! The book is dangerous! It has rituals to some sort of ancient eldritch wannabe Cthulhu in it! Something that the fucking Venatori Umbrorum wanted to use against the Red Court! The fucking Red Court _killed_ someone to get to it, and they tried to kill me for it… It has rituals to something that needed Thomas fucking Raith to come out, probably on big sister’s orders, and God, why does he have to be so sexy…” I groaned, fucking vampire looking so stupidly hot, even with that stupid Elvis outfit. I just wanted to run my hands up and down his chest, just to feel how hard it was, and fucking hell, I didn’t want to be thinking about that.

“What?” Molly asked, practically in exclamation. Looking over to Thomas herself, she bit her lower lip at the same time I bit my own. Fucking stupid sexy vampire. Molly turned her head back to me, as if she were tearing her eyes off of those muscles. “Fai, focus.”

She pulled my head closer, and I swear I saw a flare of silver in Thomas’s eyes as he got a shade paler and gripped the steering wheel. That made things a little worse, I think, but I got to thinking about the book again. Molly ran her hand through my hair, and that felt nice enough that I could just feel every bit of it.

“We’ll find the book again, Faith,” Thomas said, his voice a bit husky. Fucking hell, I hoped that he could control himself. I hoped _I_ could control myself. Assuming I wanted to control myself. He wouldn’t really— No, fucking hell, that’s the spit and the stupid sexy vampire. The book.

The book was important. “What if… what if they took it, Moll? If it’s at home, and Alicia or Amanda came in the room and took it? It’s in the cover of _Through the Looking Glass_. What if they thought it was actually the book, and they started reading from it at home and... and…”

“I’m sure that’s not what happened…” Molly said, consoling me. It felt nice as she stroked my hair, and it helped distract me from the attention I wanted to lavish on Thomas. Intellectually, I knew that it was probably something to do with the mix of him being a White Court vampire and the spit that Ortega had used, but it still was stupidly distracting. Felt way too good too, but my sister’s softness tempered it a bit.

“You said it was in a cover,” Thomas said as he pulled the car into the lot of a high-rise building. “You wouldn’t happen to have the book that the cover originally belonged to, would you?”

“Oh, yes! I do!” Being able to help Thomas in this was thrilling. “My copy of _Through the Looking Glass_ is still in the bag, I saw it.”

“That’s good.” Thomas put the car in park and unlocked the doors. “Come on, let’s get upstairs.”

Molly climbed over me to open the door, and she pulled me out of the car. I tried not to lean on her too much, but it just felt too nice to be with my sister. She and I, we followed Thomas into the elevator, Molly keeping an eye on me as I kept an eye on Thomas. The man was distracting, and maybe it was the Red Court venom, but the prospect of him feeding again… Okay, it was the Red Court venom. Ortega was a dick.

Thomas took the elevator all the way to the top floor, and when it got to the floor, he inserted a card into the place near the buttons. I don’t know what I had been expecting when the doors opened, but what I saw amazed me. The elevator had opened into an entrance hall decked in gothic decorations, straight out of the Addams family. There were cobwebs extending in every visible corner, clawed extensions held lit candles as fingertips, and the mirrors of the hall were all shattered with spider-web cracks.

Grimacing, Thomas said, “This way, you two.”

I looked around, still led by Molly as we climbed a bannister staircase that led to double doors. I murmured to my sister, “Is he Cousin Itt?”

She muffled a giggle as we passed through the doorway into a hall that shared the décor of the entryway. Thomas opened a door on our left and gestured. “Please wait in there. There’s a phone on the side table, Molly, and you can lay Faith down on the bed.”

“What are you going to do?” I asked, looking at the vampire, whose skin was several shades paler than before. His nostrils flared, and his eyes silvered some.

“I’ll be back after I’ve fed. Do not leave the room. I can’t guarantee your safety if you do.” Thomas turned away, seemingly intent on not looking at me as Molly led me into the room.

The bedroom we entered was larger than the one our parents had. There was what looked like a walk-in closet that led to a bathroom, a mirrored dresser, mirrored walls, and at the center of the room was the super king sized four post bed. With fuzzy fun time cuffs attached to each of the posts and satin sheets with a silk comforter. Oh wow, that bed looked comfy.

“Did he just leave us in…” Molly trailed off as she led me to the bed, but I didn’t finish her sentence. I was feeling too nice to do it at the moment. She looked up and snorted, causing me to look up as well. Oh wow, the ceiling was mirrored. “He did. Come on, Fai, up onto the bed.”

I figured I might as well listen to her. The bed _did_ look comfy, after all. I sat down on the bed, and then laid back. Huh, I looked kind of funny from the way my mirror image looked back at me. Molly brushed my hair back a bit, ah, I looked better then. “Mmmm…”

Molly smiled. “I’m going to call Mom. You just stay right there, okay?”

“’kay. Molly, I’m sorry…” I needed to apologize to her. I never meant to hurt her. She was my sister, and I was young and didn’t understand what we were to each other.

“Faith, it’s okay. I’m calling Mom. Thomas said you’d be over this stuff soon.”

“I’m still sorry…” I said. She needed to know that. She patted my cheek and then headed to the opposite side of the bed, where the phone was. God, I just wanted to… Gah. She deserved a better sister than me. She was such a good one, and I was terrible. I took forever to tell her about my past, and I didn’t even tell her. She found out through a soulgaze. How shitty was that? And… it was way too warm in that room.

I sat up somewhat so I could remove my jacket. Oh, that was better. I could hear Molly on the phone with Mom, and oh, I was just a terrible daughter too. We were lying to Mom and putting ourselves in danger when Daddy was already out fighting God knows what. Daddy had Sanya, who, well, was just amazing, and we had Thomas, who was out there, feeding so he wouldn’t do what he and I both wanted him to do. Except I didn’t but I did but I didn’t.

I needed to control my breathing, it was coming out in ragged breaths. Mom didn’t need to hear me over the phone. If I could keep from breathing hard, I could stay calm. It was taking nearly all I had to do that though. God, it was like the fucking gymnastics thing all over again, only the room at the hospital wasn’t so hot.

I caught a glimpse inside the bathroom. There was a Jacuzzi style tub in there. Jackpot. While Molly was on the phone, I was going to take a bath, and nobody was going to stop me. I needed to cool down, and the best way to do that was to take a nice hot bath. That’d let me deal with the heat on my terms, and it’d be so nice on my skin. I glanced to Molly, still on the phone, and I made my way through the closet. Oh wow, those were pretty clothes, cut probably for a woman who was bustier than me. Not that I was a slouch there, but those were… Well, White Court vampire woman attire.

I made it into the bathroom and turned on the tub, feeling the water rush over my hand, nice and hot. Oh, that was nearly perfect, just needed a bit hotter. Let’s turn the cold water all the way down, perfect. Oh, that was so nice; it lit up my skin so well. Now, I just needed to let the tub fill before I got in. Let’s see, I’d already shaved my legs today, and other areas that needed trimming, so I could just relax in this tub once I got in.

“Fai, what are you doing?” Molly called out, after hanging up the phone I bet. Maybe she could come join me in the bath. There was plenty of room for the both of us.

“Going to take a bath! It’s so nice and big and nice!” I just needed to emphasize how good it would be for her to join in.

“Fai, you’re already clean,” Molly said as she came into the bathroom, picking up my clothes from where I’d discarded them.

“But it’s so hot in here, and…” I gestured at the water which had some nice billows of steam coming off of it. “I’m going to climb in, you can join me if you want…”

Molly immediately came over and wrapped her hands around me, meeting at my back. “Fai, no… That water’s too hot. Listen to your big sister.”

I groaned as a shudder swept through me. The icy air of outside peaked in through the slight cracks in the window, causing goosebumps to go up and down my skin. I glanced at the steaming bath I’d drawn and down at the hand I’d used to test it. My hand was practically lobster red.

“Two minutes,” I said.

“What?” Molly asked from the hug.

“You’re two minutes older, Moll.” I shivered again. The fuck had I been thinking?

“And as your older sister, you should listen to me. Let’s get that water off and you dressed again before Thomas comes back and decides he wants to feed on you.” Molly helped me to my feet and, without breaking contact with my skin for more than twenty seconds, she helped me get my clothes back on properly.

“Just because I listened doesn’t mean it counts,” I noted. “Two minutes isn’t all that long.”

“One hundred and twenty seconds,” Molly said, her lips quirking. “So, why do you think Thomas asked about the book without a cover?”

“Maybe some way to trace it. The way that Harry… Well, you know. I don’t know if Thomas can do any magic beyond the White Court stuff though,” I said.

“Maybe he thinks we can?” Molly led me back toward the bed, where the two of us laid down. It really was a comfortable bed, but it wasn’t quite time for it yet.

“Lord, I hope not,” I said. The effects of the venom seemed to be starting to wear off, leaving me with a tingling hand and the beginnings of one hell of a headache. God, I hadn’t reacted that badly to something since I was little. I needed to not get hit by that venom again.

The doorknob of the room’s entrance started to turn, and I tensed my legs. This was a Raith holding, what if Thomas wasn’t the only one of his family to be here? The closet had had a number of dresses that were cut for a well-developed woman, likely a vampire. Given that the extent of my memory of Thomas’s family other than Harry was his older sister Lara, and his dad being a dick, albeit a toothless one. Whatever that meant. Still, I knew he had a number of other siblings as well, given that his father was, as White Court vampires tended to be, very promiscuous. Most of them were female, if I remembered right, so we could be in the bedroom of any of them.

The door swung open, and when Thomas stepped into view, his skin a healthy color again, wearing jeans and a black turtleneck, I breathed a sigh of relief. We weren’t going to have to explain our presence to another White Court vampire.

“Feeling better, Faith?” He looked at both Molly and I.

I nodded. “A bit, yeah.”

“Good.” Thomas closed the door, and he reached into the duffel bag he had conveniently behind him, pulling out some salt, five candles, and then he pulled off of his neck, a silver pentacle pendant. “Bring over the copy of _Through the Looking Glass_ , we’ll find that book.”

Molly reached into my bag and pulled out the coverless book. “How’s this going to help?”

Thomas just grinned. “Magic, of course.”

  



	16. Interlude: Thomas Raith

I wish I could say I was a good person. That I could say I was normal, able to find love, able to be with someone without having the ever-hanging threat of killing them over my head. But I can’t. I am a monster, a vampire of the White Court.

My name is Thomas Raith, and I’m a monster. Sounds like I’m in Alcoholics Anonymous, but when I lose control, people are guaranteed to die rather than simply likely to get hurt. My family encourages us to look at mortals as food, people to be exploited and fed upon. If we can get their lust up enough, our Hunger, our demons, can devour the energy produced by that, and it sustains us.

I have a number of sisters, all born of my father, all vampires as well. I have one brother, and he doesn’t know that we’re related. I lied to him that evening, when he’d asked me about Justine. I didn’t want him getting involved in a problem that wasn’t his to deal with. Harry would have gotten involved if I’d told him about Justine, if I’d told him who I was meeting with that evening. He was that kind of person, even if he had other issues to worry about at the moment.

This was Venatori business anyway, and the White Council had no place in the Oblivion War. Their methods were antithetical to what needed to be done with creatures such as the one this book I’d sought called upon. Lara had ordered me to look for it last night, as she knew I’d been in the city for this duel between Ortega and Harry.

I’d failed to find the book because a young woman named Faith Carpenter found it first. She’d even been willing to bring it with her to meet with me and to hand it over. She’d known too much the previous night, but given who her father was, I’d been looking for alternatives to flat-out killing her or telling her the truth. See, if a mortal finds out about the Oblivion War or the true Venatori, they are to be recruited or eliminated. It’s the only way to guarantee that the knowledge of the being in question is removed entirely.

Of course, she’d told and brought her sister, her twin sister with her, and I’d still been focused on Justine’s predicament when Faith mentioned the Venatori that I’d nearly blabbed the whole thing in a room full of mortals. Empty Night, that would have been terrible.

After dropping Faith at home the previous night, I’d noted the tail I’d had made a mistake. So I brought him to my sisters where they could ensure his cooperation. Unfortunately, while I was there, Lara had taken Justine and given me an Ultimatum. Dedicate my focus to the book, or she’d tell Justine about the Venatori. I couldn’t let that happen.

I closed the door to Lara’s room, once Molly and Faith were inside. My Hunger raged at me. Twin virgins, ripe for the taking, one of them practically begging for it, and I walked away. My Hunger wanted to feed, wanted to taste more of what it had the previous night, and I walked away. I’d feed upon the staff Lara kept here for those purposes, since Justine was with Lara.

The staff member was, Sarah, Samantha, Ana or something like that, but she’d known what to do. She’d been fed on before, and honestly, she wasn’t all that bad looking. Justine had her beat though. In most things. Justine had been my food source for several years now, and she was the best thing I’d ever fed on. My feeding helped her better than any shrink ever would.

Funny how those two burgeoning practitioners reminded me of Justine a little. When I’d fed on Faith, the previous night, I’d felt her power, and the life energy she gave off. Seeing her with Molly made more sense. Twins tended to be connected in ways that were always way too hard to explain. And she’d been a virgin. My Hunger’d really hated the fact that I forced the feeding to stop before getting more than a taste.

I wasn’t a good person, but I was pragmatic. Feeding fully on either of those two would have me dead at the hands of their father. I remembered the Knight. I was going to do my best to keep them out of danger. Once sated, and the venom wore off, I’d take them back to their house while borrowing the book. I’d track down the ritual book and destroy it myself.

My phone rang, as I finished. I answered without looking at who was calling. “What?”

“Is that how you answer the phone when all of our sisters call, or am I special, Thomas?” Lara was calling me. Why? I’d been doing what I needed to, what she’d practically ordered me to. Venatori business needed to get done, and I understood the reasoning. However, she was checking up on me. Why?

“What do you want, Lara? I’m doing what’s necessary,” I said, letting the staffer rest on the bed. She’d need it in order to recover after that and what I’d took from her.

“To be certain you aren’t killing my staff, for one,” Lara said. “And I see you’ve managed to restrain yourself. Good boy.”

“Lara,” I growled out. “What are you calling about?”

“Justine is safe, of course. I even kept Joanna from sampling her; she really is a lovely girl,” Lara continued to talk, ignoring me.

“Lara, I know you didn’t just call to taunt me about Justine, what is it?” I asked.

“Keep up your work, Thomas. Justine won’t have to hear anything,” Lara said. “And… about those twins, the ones you placed in my room. Are they a gift for me? A bribe, perhaps?”

“No!” I exclaimed, and my Hunger agreed with me. If anyone was going to be tasting them, I was, but I wasn’t going to do so. “They’re—”

“The ones who know where the book is, or how to find it,” Lara guessed.

“Something like that,” I said.

“Bring them with you when you go to find it,” Lara said. “They know too much.”

“You know too much! What, do you have a bug in my car?” I asked.

“Of course not.” I could hear Lara’s sniff. “Father does. I just go through the more… sensitive information and selectively edit it for Father’s information brief. You’ve been way too competent around these girls. For shame.”

My grip tightened around the phone. “What do you want, Lara?” She always wanted something. She’d hold this over me and use it to maneuver me like a pawn.

“You’re bringing the girls with you when you find the book. Call this their trial by fire,” Lara said. “If they succeed, they will be Venatori. If they die, well, no loss.”

“And the alternative?” I had to ask.

“If they don’t come,” Lara said, pausing for emphasis. “Justine will have her own trial by fire.”

The phone went dead at that. Lara’d hung up on me. I pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at it. I’d need to bring the Carpenter twins with me. They may have been the daughters of one of the best men I’d ever met, but they weren’t Justine. I’d do what I could to keep my best source of food safe. Even if it meant taking the twins into danger. That didn’t mean that I couldn’t equip them enough to keep them safe, however.

So that’s what I’d do.

  



	17. Chapter Fifteen

Blegh. At least it hadn’t been a full dose, and at least Molly’d been there with me. I don’t even want to know what would have happened if both of us had managed to get hit by Red Court venom. I hated worrying my sister. Still, hopefully the rest of the night would be drug free. Blegh. The after-effect feeling was worse than what it felt like during, and I could see why people would go back. I think if it weren’t for Molly, I probably would be clamoring to go to Ortega and offer myself, or at least my body would want to. I’d hope that I’d have more willpower than that.

Sitting up, I could see Thomas setting down the candles in a pentagonal shape, which he then started connecting with lines of salt to make a star. After making the five points of the star, he spun around the center, finishing the pentagram of salt.

“I don’t envy whoever has to clean that up,” I said. “Salt and wax?”

“This room’s seen worse.” Thomas shrugged as he pulled out a lighter and started lighting each of the candles in turn.

“What, you can’t just light each of the candles magically?” Molly asked.

“Can you?” Thomas countered.

“Well, no, but—”

“Then don’t complain about my methods.” Thomas grunted, something I’ve noticed men tend to do a lot when they want to end a conversation. Maybe it was a family thing.

“So, what are you planning on doing, Thomas?” I asked, scooting to the edge of the bed to watch the vampire as he continued his setup. “If you say magic, I’ll hit you.”

“Well, you said that you put the cover of that book onto the ritual book, right?” Thomas asked, and then muttered something about Harry explaining better than him.

“Yeah, I did. I thought if someone was going to search my bag, they wouldn’t be looking for a covered book,” I said, straightening my jacket some. “If what I hope didn’t happen didn’t actually happen, then my bit was probably not all that smart.”

“That doesn’t matter; what matters is that the book has a sympathetic link with its cover. I don’t know how strong it is or how well this will work, but I’m hoping that the link is strong enough that we can get a good tracking spell going on it. Which is why I’m going to ask that the two of you be silent while I do this casting.” Thomas took the book from Molly and stood in the circle. He cut his hand with a knife he’d pulled from his belt and let some blood drip onto the salt of the circle.

Molly and I both snapped our attention to it as the candles flared up for a second. Thomas’s circle had been closed, and we’d _felt_ it. I’d felt something similar when activating the circle on that door the previous night, but still, it was another thing entirely to feel another person doing magic nearby. Together, we watched Thomas as he muttered words under his breath, saying whatever mnemonic device he used to trigger his spell, gathering the power to cast it.

Of course, with the circle, the only indication of power being summoned were the candles. The flames flared higher the more Thomas murmured, but they seemed to stop at no higher than six inches vertically. This… was taking longer than I’d expect something like this to take. I don’t think that I’d actually seen Harry do a tracking spell before, but I vaguely recalled something about him being able to get one done in under two minutes. This had been considerably longer.

I nudged Molly once I moved closer to her. _So, bets on how long this will take?_

Molly sighed and tried to hide a smile. _Another ten minutes, maybe._

I silently snickered, as we watched on. We probably were going to feel whatever Thomas was doing when he broke that circle. The power he was gathering had to go somewhere. Sure, the spell would eat up some of it, but even without knowing how to do what he was doing, it was obvious he was being very inefficient with it.

Molly grabbed my hand and nudged me slightly. _I’m glad you’re okay, Fai._

I squeezed the hand and leaned on Molly. _Sorry for worrying you._

Thomas continued his incantation, and the pentacle in his right hand began to sway over the book. Perhaps it was the light from the flames of the candles, but it seemed to take on a silvery glow. It swung like a pendulum as he continued to chant his incantation. I, oddly, was reminded of a vague memory of an anime that probably wasn’t even out yet. Something to do with keys and summoning things, but maybe that was because of the circle.

Then, at once, Thomas broke the circle, and the candles flamed out. A rush of energy exploded out from the circle, swirling around the pentacle necklace and the book, and with a hard tug, the pentacle floated, pulling at the chain, pointing toward the window.

“Well, looks like the link was strong enough, after all,” Thomas said. “But before we go, you two need to get something.”

We blinked. “What?”

“Well,” Thomas said, heading over to a tall armoire. He opened the door, revealing a pair of silvered kukris, twin beautiful swords. “These would probably be helpful for you two.”

Molly and I walked over, each grabbing one of the kukris, testing the balance. Oh, these were gorgeous blades, well crafted, sharp. They must have cost a fortune. I reached into the armoire and pulled out two sheathes, tossing one to Molly, and in a fluid motion, we sheathed the swords, tying them around our waists.

“Okay, thank you for the swords,” I said. “So we should head back to the car then?”

Thomas nodded and opened the door to the bedroom, gesturing for us to take the lead. I really didn’t want to think about what he did to control himself earlier, nor did I want to think about how well he wore that turtleneck. Fucking hell. I also didn’t want to brush by his rock hard abs as I passed him, but they were there and he was in the way. I definitely didn’t enjoy it. Stupid sexy vampire.

“Do be careful not to lose those swords,” Thomas said as the elevator started going down. “They’re my sister’s.”

“How many sisters do you have, Thomas?” I asked. I recalled him having a bunch, but I think only a few were actually named in the books. One whom was scarier than all the rest, and another that ended up staying human due to her actions.

“Too many, I think. The swords you’re holding belong to my eldest. She won’t mind us using them for the business we’re doing, though.” Thomas led the way back to the car, and we climbed inside. He hung the pentacle up around the mirror, and it pointed in a direction.

Thomas pulled out of the parking garage, and off we went, following the directions of a pointing pentacle. I suppose I should have been happy when the pentacle took us in a direction opposite of our house. It meant that the jawas hadn’t broken into the room to take the book. Probably, anyway. Thomas looped around a parking lot three times, checking the pointing of the pentacle, each pass. He finally pulled in.

“Looks like we walk from here,” Molly said, looking around. We’d ended up in an area of downtown that I’d be nervous walking around in during the daytime. At night, this area seemed all the worse. The windows on the surrounding buildings were boarded up. Some were even in the process of being torn down, or in a state of decay. Heck, other than our car in the parking lot, there were two old, beat up cars missing their tires and windows shattered in. “I don’t like this.”

“Me neither,” I answered, grasping Molly’s left hand with my right.

“Don’t worry, there’s nothing around here right now. Not in the area, anyway.” Thomas held up the pentacle, which pointed across the lot toward a building. “That way might be a different matter. Stay with me.”

We didn’t have to walk all that far. Through the parking lot, through two alleyways, around a corner, and there it was. The pentacle dipped slightly, pointing at a painted metal door.

“Looks like this is it.” I started toward the door, but Thomas stretched out his hand, stopping me. The pentacle dipped more, at an angle, still pointing at the door. “What is it?”

Thomas grimaced. “This is going to be unpleasant.”

“What’s going to—” Molly started, and I stepped forward beside her.

“Be unpleasant?” I finished asking. “Where does—”

“That door lead?” Molly asked, her right hand reaching down to grab at the sword.

Thomas looked between the two of us, finally settling on trying to look at both of us at the same time as he answered. “Undertown. The door leads to Undertown.”

Molly and I shared a look. That wasn’t good.

  



	18. Chapter Sixteen

Undertown. Wonderful. Evidently it was more than a rumor. See, Undertown was supposedly this network of caves and tunnels that sat nearly abandoned under the streets of Chicago. Chicago was built on a swamp, level with Lake Michigan. It kept sinking into the ground though, and rather than trying to dig it up, people just kept building on top of it. This left what Undertown would be, a series of interconnected abandoned construction and tunnels. Supposedly it was also used to house the Manhattan Project once, but I never could confirm that rumor online. Undertown had this huge online rumor site, talking about what really went on under there, but I wasn’t sure how much stock to put in that.

What I remembered about Undertown? It was dangerous. Plain and simple, what existed under the city streets was every single nasty that could be there. There might have been a criminal problem down there once, but it was likely that the supernatural population crowded them out. Too much went on in Undertown, and too much would continue to go on.

And we were about to go inside. “Are you sure this is where we need to go?”

Thomas held up the pentacle, and it continued pointing. “Looks like.” He grimaced. “I don’t like this. The two of you shouldn’t be going down there with me.”

“Then why bring us along?” Molly asked. “Why not just take us home? We’d probably be a liability to you anyway.”

“My sister knows you know,” Thomas said bluntly.

“… Justine.” I realized what his issue was. “Thomas, where is Justine?”

“With her,” Thomas said. “We’ll need some flashlights if we’re heading into Undertown.”

I frowned, but Thomas started reaching into the duffel he had, and he pulled out two flashlights, which he handed to Molly and I. Then, afterward, he pulled out a sawed-off shotgun.

“If we have no choice on where to go, best to be safe as can be,” Thomas said.

I nodded, and flicked on the flashlight, simultaneous with my sister. If Justine got hurt because I refused to do something, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. I just had this immense sinking feeling in my gut. I was missing something, and I didn’t know what it was. Something I should be remembering about Undertown.

Thomas tried the door’s handle first, but it didn’t give when he pushed or pulled. “Right. Either of you want to give a try?”

I looked to Molly. She looked about as scared as I felt. I really didn’t want to go down there. Who knew what we’d run into? Molly brushed a hand against mine, and I nodded. _Together._

The two of us went up to the door, and in one solid movement, we kicked. The door shook at our impact, and we tried again, another shake. This would take a bit more than we could get by combining our muscles.

“Thomas,” we said. “You’re stronger than we are. Get the damn door open.”

He blinked, and, muttering about creepy twin girls, stepped between us. We pulled back, grouping closer together, and for a second, Thomas’s skin was alabaster white. He kicked the door, and as it slammed open, his skin returned to normal. Through the door was a dark downward staircase, but it was definitely a staircase, not a ladder. Thank God.

“Well, guess we head down then?” we asked.

“Looks like, and can you stop that?” Thomas asked.

“Stop what?”

“That.” The vampire pointed at us, like we should know what he meant.

“We’re not sure what you mean, Thomas.” He might have been cute, sexy, whatever, but he definitely had some major issues if he couldn’t handle us together. We weren’t even sure we wanted to… okay, we definitely wanted to, but we could control ourselves. We might not have been able to if he really wanted to do anything to us, but Thomas was a good man. Vampire. Whatever. “Let’s go.”

We’d alternated that last bit, in hopes of appeasing him. He shook his head and led the way down the stairs, with us following close behind. The stairs led, oddly, in a straight fashion, downward at least two stories before we came to a tunnel entrance, leading into the darkness of Undertown. This was the place that would have God knows how many nasties, and most of them would want to eat us. Do something to us anyway. Our hands crept closer to the swords Thomas had given, even as we shined the light around.

It didn’t take us long before we came to a crossroad. Thomas held up the pentacle to get an idea on which way to go while we kept a mental map of where we were heading. We needed to be able to get out of here as fast as possible when the worst happened. We weren’t like Harry. We couldn’t just blast our way out if necessary, and…

“Fuck,” I muttered as Molly shook her head. That memory. Tonight. Tonight was the night. “Thomas, was Harry waiting for someone when you left Mac’s tonight?”

“Fai?” Molly asked, a little warningly.

“Looked like, but I couldn’t really stay all that long if I wanted to meet up with you.” Thomas led us down the left passage. “Why?”

I grimaced. “There’s worse things down here than normal tonight, and Harry’s in the thick of it.”

“Denarians?” Molly asked. “Won’t Daddy be back in time to deal with them?”

“St. Louis. He hadn’t called by the time we left.” I frowned. I didn’t _think_ Daddy and Sanya were going to be hurt. We continued down this passage. “Shiro… Shiro’s not going to be Harry’s second, Thomas.”

“Pity. He seemed like a stand-up guy.” Thomas held up the pentacle again, and I noticed some movement up ahead. The pentacle led that way too.

“Shiro’s a Knight, like Daddy,” I said, my hand tightening around the kukri’s hilt. I shone my light ahead. “It’s his job to oppose these bad guys.”

“Well, he’s been doing it this long,” Thomas said, his eyes focusing down on the movement. The shapes weren’t quite distinct yet, quadrupedal, sure, but I couldn’t get an accurate measure of size based upon the light. Nor could I really make out any details. “He must be good.”

Molly’s hand gripped her sword’s hilt as well. Neither of us were liking what we felt down here. It felt wrong, like oil and sickness, and a pervasive chill that caused the hairs on the back of my neck to stick up. This wasn’t the oily feeling of the Red Court vampires. No, this was somehow darker, slimier, more dirty, and the worst of it was down the passage to our right. Luckily, the pentacle never wavered that direction, and instead we headed toward the source of the chill wind.

“He’s better than good. He taught our father to fight,” Molly said, eying the shapes as I looked behind us. The shapes ahead started to gain more definition. Their feline-like bodies stood out the closer we got, and the way they moved against the sides of the tunnel was like a cat stalking its prey. “I didn’t think there’d be any cats down here.”

I tensed when I saw Thomas do the same. He scanned further down the tunnel with his superior night vision.

“There’s just one problem,” Thomas said as we slowly approached the shapes. “Those aren’t cats.”

**********************

Undertown, home of every possible supernatural entity you could think of, and many that you probably couldn’t. Of course what we saw up ahead weren’t cats. I couldn’t, for the life of me, think of what they must have been, but whatever they were, they were predatory. I could feel them watching. _We_ could feel them watching our approach. Molly and I were tense, our hands wrapped tightly around the hilts of our kukris.

“If they’re not cats, what are they?” Molly asked, managing to keep her voice level. Smart girl, my sister. She knew that she shouldn’t show fear to these things, just as I did. Of course, given the situation, fear was a very appropriate response.

“Malks,” Thomas said, moving the shotgun in his hand toward one of the shadows as it moved. I swore I heard rasping laughter, and I saw the glimmer of claws as we got closer. “Beings of the Nevernever, associated with the Winter Court.”

“Indeed,” said a rasping voice, sounding less like a sound a human would make and more like a mangled cat if it could talk. “One has to wonder what brings ones such as yourselves through this territory.”

I shone my flashlight toward where the voice came from, and it reflected off of large yellow-green slitted eyes and a jaw full of sharp feline teeth. The rest of the malk seemed to blend with the side of the tunnel, likely an effect of its fur’s pattern. Molly shone her light around as well. I counted… four. Four distinct presences other than ourselves, including the one that had just spoken.

“Hunting,” I said. “For a thief.”

I realized that this probably wasn’t the best way to go about this, but we needed to not have them believe _we_ were prey. The biggest there was the one that had revealed itself somewhat, but the rest of the malks were in hiding. I got the feeling that there should have been more of them, that they hunted in bigger packs than a pack of four.

“A thief! She seeks a thief… Many thieves exist in Undertown, mortal,” the malk said. “Including ones who steal both territory and life.”

Territory. Malks marked their territory, right? Something sounded right about that. I glanced around, looking at the walls of the tunnel. No claw marks pocked these walls, nor could I see any further down.

“We seek passage through,” Thomas said. “Unharmed, both ways.”

“And what is thy offer for safe passage?” the malk asked, and then cocked its head to the side. I shivered involuntarily, as the chill feeling coming from the end of the tunnel grew stronger. “Three mortals would be an excellent dinner for our pack.”

“I think you would find us not such easy prey, malk,” Molly and I spoke in unison, our blades half out of their sheathes. “We aren’t in your territory anyway.”

“Thou arm thyselves with steel?” another malk’s voice, somewhat feminine sounding came from our right.

“The best way to fight faeries,” we said with a sneer.

Thomas glared back at us for a second before turning to the first malk. We didn’t care. We weren’t going to let these things intimidate us, but we’d let him speak. “We can offer a gift of cloth in exchange for passage.”

The first malk that spoke cocked its head again, as if listening for something. The ice-cold energy grew stronger. “Thy gift is unnecessary. My Lady bids my escort of thee to her. Bartering may be done to find thy thief.”

All those thees, thous, and thys… Fae speech hadn’t really evolved forward with the times, had it? Perhaps that was a function of what they were.

“That would be appreciated,” Thomas said, keeping his gun up, and looking at his pentacle.

The malk came into full view at that. A large muscular feline, weighing maybe sixty to seventy pounds stood before us. Its grey fur coat had a rippled black pattern, and its eyes held an intelligence not common in a normal animal. It hissed at the others, and their presences faded from what I could sense. Maybe they’d returned to their territory from here, assuming they were able.

“So, what is your name? Why lead us?” Molly asked of the malk as it looked the three of us over.

“I have been called many names and trodded many paths. My lady bids me bring thee to her, so I lead.” The malk looked at me next, its eyes focusing on my face and then my hair. It had to be sizing me up in preparation for something. I’d run it through with a sword if I had to.

“What’s your name, malk? Why, exactly, are you leading us?” I asked, echoing my sister’s question.

“I have been called hunter, watcher, and guide. Tonight I have gained a new name as well. My lady has requested thy presence. That is enough.” The malk turned, heading toward the direction we’d been heading.

“Thrice we ask and done,” Molly and I said in unison, putting a bit of will behind the statement and the upcoming questions. We remembered that bit about faeries. It had been in one of the old faerie tale books we’d read one time for fun. Faeries had to speak the truth and honor things said three times. “What is your name? Why lead us?”

“Tonight, my Lady calls me Cheshire, but the name I am most commonly known by is Grimalkin. I have been ordered to lead thee by my lady, and I shall.” Grimalkin, now named, let out a growl as it faded from view, save for its floating smile and glowing footprints that it left. “Follow my footprints, mortals. This should not be hard, even for thee.”

We let Grimalkin get a bit ahead of us before we started following.

“How the hell did you two know about that bit with faeries?” Thomas asked.

“The Brothers Grimm have some rather interesting stories,” I said. “Read them all when we were little.”

“Gutenberg too,” Molly added. “Grimalkin is… Scottish, I think. It’s been a while.”

Thomas grimaced. “I hate dealing with faeries.”

Molly and I shared a look and a small smile, but then I turned back to Thomas. “We should probably get following.”

He nodded, and he led the way, keeping his shotgun level. I looked down at the glowing footprints that Grimalkin had left. Sure, they resembled a cat’s footprint, if you squinted a little, anyway. They were too thin, and the toes were spread too far apart to actually be mistaken. I wondered why there weren’t more malks in hiding when we’d shown up though. Four seemed remarkably small for a malk pack. I didn’t know exactly how big it should have been, but I got the feeling that they preferred overwhelming numbers.

The chill feeling grew stronger as we came further down the tunnel, and it peaked when we stepped out of the tunnel into an open room. Music echoed through the chamber, and I wondered how we weren’t able to hear it from outside. It was an odd mix of classical, techno, and a little bit of rock and roll in tone, and I wasn’t entirely sure whether it actually worked or not, but there were dancers. Inhumanly beautiful dancers, tall, each wearing outfits that resembled… chess pieces? The pointed ears and their eyes clearly marked them as fae, no, worse, Sidhe.

I looked further around the room. It was lit by torches hanging on the wall that burned with blue and green flames. The floor of the chamber had been decorated in a red and white checkered pattern, with each square sitting at about five by five feet. My eyes followed Grimalkin’s footprints, which led to the end of the room, where a pair of chairs were set up.

In one chair sat a curly-haired redhead with amber eyes that had cat-like pupils. Her green dress was low-cut and clung to her beautiful body like she’d been out in the rain. It left little to the imagination, and what a body it was.

“Empty Night,” Thomas swore. “That’s Harry’s godmother.”

But the pentacle wasn’t pointing at her, from its position in Thomas’s hand. No, it was pointing to the occupant of the other chair, another beautiful woman, dressed in a blood-red dress, similarly low cut, if not for the upward turned collar that ran up her back and behind her hair. Her hair, unlike her dress, was snow white and if it weren’t tied up in a bun, it would likely hang in dreadlocks. In her right hand, she held the empty cover of my copy of _Through the Looking Glass._ The book wasn’t in it, as we could clearly see.

“Stop the music!” the white-haired Sidhe woman yelled as she stood up. The music stopped, and… God, were those normal people? Were they the ones playing the music? “We have guests. Uninvited ones, of course, but guests nonetheless.”

Grimalkin’s eyes faded into view over his floating teeth. “May I present, my Lady, the Winter Lady and Red Queen, Maeve.”

Maeve smiled. “Thank you, Cheshire. As for what must be done with these guests… OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!”

*******************

I was not going to die here. My sister was not going to die here. Thomas? Well, I really didn’t want him to die here either. Justine was a nice enough girl, and having the man she loved die would suck. When the _Winter fucking Lady_ called out for us to lose our heads, I had the kukri half out of the sheathe, and Molly did as well. We might not have stood a chance in hell against the assembled forces of the Sidhe here, but we’d be able to run. We’d be able to hide. We’d be able to—why were they laughing?

The laughter of the faeries was a beautiful and terrible thing, indicating that we missed something. Maeve stalked over to us, flanked by Harry’s scary godmother and placed a hand over my own, Lea doing the same to Molly’s. I noted the presence of a sheathed dagger behind Lea’s back, but it was less important than the Sidhe queen who happened to be right in my face. Her hands were soft, like freshly fallen snow, and, like snow, cool to the touch.

“Peace, child,” Maeve said. “You are my guest, a guest in my Court, and as such you are protected.”

I glanced down to her hand. The cover was empty. Whoever had taken the book had removed its cover and somehow it ended up in the hands of the Winter Lady. I wasn’t entirely prepared for this, and frankly, I really wasn’t prepared for any of this. Shouldn’t Maeve have been somewhere else? Lea’s presence was… Wait, why was the Leanansidhe here anyway? Wasn’t she supposed to be doing something with Harry and protection and being his godmother and all? I didn’t know.

I sheathed the sword, Maeve’s hands moving with my own made her chest do rather interesting things. Oh. Nonononono. That way lies madness. Faith, do not indicate to the scary Sidhe lady that you might be interested in her. Once the blade was fully sheathed, her lips quirked and she backed away from me. The Leanansidhe did the same from Molly, and my sister came over next to me, to hold my hand. This was odd.

“Guests. Guest right,” I said, the words coming unbidden to my lips. “We are honored, Lady Maeve. But if I might impose a small correction upon your role this evening.”

“Oh, mortal?” Maeve cocked her head and looked at me. Thomas, for his part, seemed… somewhat normal. Restrained, but he hadn’t talked.

“In Carroll’s stories, the Red Queen wasn’t the one who called for the head chopping. It was the Queen of Hearts instead,” I said, my mouth getting away from me. “I mean; I can understand the mistake. It’s easy to do so with all the media on the Alice stories out and about, and the most famous one being Disney’s which I’d heard is a popular thing about fa-ah, Sidhe viewing.”

Molly squeezed my hand and nudged me. _Fai, shut up. You’re babbling to the scary Sidhe lady._

“I did advise you that you should not decorate based upon image alone, child.” The Leanansidhe admonished Maeve. “Perhaps next time, if you wish to be accurate, you will listen.”

“Our guests,” Maeve said, clearly annoyed with… something. God, I hoped it wasn’t me. I didn’t want to annoy someone who might have been… something. I squeezed Molly’s hand involuntarily. Winter Lady. Shit. At some point in the future, she wasn’t going to be Winter Lady anymore. I had a bad feeling about that and how it would be related to us. “Our guests are welcome here, and the young lady’s point is a service.”

Wait. What? Did I accidentally a favor with Maeve? I did not mean to do that. Clearly it’s a minor favor, but still. One thing that I remembered about faeries is how bad it was to do any sort of exchange with them if you could help it.

“Thomas Raith, and Faith and Molly Carpenter, daughters of the Knight of the White God,” the Leanansidhe introduced us to the Court. I supposed I shouldn’t be surprised she knew us. She paid attention to Harry’s life, which really called into question why she was here at the moment rather than watching over her godson.

“Lady Maeve, on behalf of my family, I greet you and thank you for your hospitality,” Thomas said, finally pulling himself together. “Forgive our rather abrupt entrance into your demesne, but we were led here; on your order, we were told.”

Apparently Thomas could be diplomatic. I wasn’t entirely sure that ran in the family, as I remembered a few situations that Harry got into that he probably could have gotten out of easier with a little bit of diplomacy.

“Yes, abrupt. I suppose I can be persuaded to forgive you your entrance, but you must stay a while. Enjoy the party. I know I am.” Maeve smiled as she looked at the three of us.

“We can’t stay long,” Molly said. “We’ve… We need to return home in a bit.”

“Oh, but child.” The Leanansidhe moved to cup my sister’s cheek, but I pulled her back some, out of the way of the hand. “Why not make this your new home?”

“We’d rather not,” I said. “Shouldn’t you be watching your godson?”

“Oh, but I am, child. He is on his way as we speak.” The Leanansidhe smiled. “The mess he is in is of his own making, as such it does not behoove me to step in.”

… Fuck. If she did step in, if she did save Harry, maybe Shiro could be saved. But… that dagger. A different oily feeling came from that dagger, a wrongness that triggered something in my memory. Something about an adversary. About… no, I wouldn’t say its name aloud. I wouldn’t even think it while I was down here. The Leanansidhe couldn’t save Harry and Shiro, not without an exchange even if she weren’t compromised. Damnit.

“Then, we should be returning home soon,” I said.

“Not before,” Maeve said as a beautiful Sidhe woman and two gorgeously handsome Sidhe men brought out some chairs from _somewhere_ , and sat them at the table near Maeve, across from where her throne faced it. The table had a Dewar full of water, and a bunch of different food items upon it, ranging from fresh fruits to cheeses and crackers. “The three of you have the chance to sit and relax a little.”

I glanced to Molly, and we both glanced to Thomas, who gave a slight nod. The three of us walked forward, taking seats facing the Winter Lady and her advisor. I glanced to the book cover, still in her hand, and then to the pentacle that Thomas was now tying back around his neck.

“Where did you get that?” I asked, nodding to the book cover.

“This? I picked it up earlier today,” Maeve said. “I quite like it, pity the wrong book was underneath it.”

“Where did that book go?” Thomas asked suddenly. “Do you still have it?”

“Now that, Venator, is a loaded question. Surely you cannot think it will be that easy to get this answer.” Maeve’s smile was predatory and beautiful, but it was directed at Thomas. I was able to look away, and about the room. Lord, it felt strange in here.

Molly squeezed my hand. _Easy, Fai. I’m scared too._

I nodded and looked over to the Leanansidhe to find her staring at Maeve contemplatively, almost hungrily, but perhaps I was confused over what she wanted.

“How about we make a trade for that information? Would an offer of art be acceptable?” I asked Maeve, likely preempting her call for a deal. I didn’t want to set the trade on her terms. She’d likely ask us to barter away our firstborn children or something. I wasn’t sure I wanted to even have kids.

“It would depend on the art that you have in mind,” Maeve said, a look of slight disappointment passing over her face. She wanted to do something, I know it.

I reached into my jacket pocket and pulled out a deck box. This was the deck that I would have been playing at tonight’s tournament if I’d been actually able to go. The cards within the deck held value, and they would probably continue to gain value as the years went on. Additionally, they held some sentimental value. This wasn’t the Hive though. This was my Ice Age deck. Fitting that now I offered it to a Winter Queen.

I took the deck out of its box and spread the cards out on an open area of the table so that Maeve could view them.

She laughed.

“Stars, I love mortals. These arts are wonderful,” Maeve said. “But, I’m afraid, they are not quite enough to get that information you seek, young Venator. These are not the first of this sort of offering I have been given.”

“Then what do you want?” Thomas asked.

“What does any girl want at a party?” Maeve asked rhetorically. “Entertainment. This art, and provided you three are entertaining enough, I will give you your information.”

“What… what sort of entertainment?” Molly asked.

“Combat,” Maeve answered, and then gestured behind us. The Sidhe group parted, and a large quadrupedal creature that resembled the crossbreed of a lizard, a leopard, and a dog stepped into view. It was maybe ten feet head to tail, with thick limbs protruding from a thicker body. Its face was that of a Rottweiler with exposed, razor-sharp teeth. Each foot had hooked protruding claws, and its spotted grey fur looked like it could stand up in quills. “Combat with the Bandersnatch. Prove entertaining enough within five minutes, and you will have your information. Win, and I will ensure your passage out of here does not encounter any… unpleasant attention.”

So. All we had to do to get the information we needed was fight that thing and be entertaining for five minutes. We were under guest right, so she couldn’t outright kill us, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have us hurt. God, I didn’t want to show up home hurt, but at the same time, we needed to know what information she had about the people who had the book. If we won, she could guarantee that there weren’t going to be fucking Denarians at our back. Or other fae.

The question was, could we do it? I stared at the creature. Could we defeat the Bandersnatch?

  



	19. Chapter Seventeen

How had it come to this? What had started as me simply wanting to help my father by trying to remember some information about his enemy had somehow turned into getting ready to face down a creature from a Lewis Carroll poem. The frumious Bandersnatch stood before us, as the Winter Lady stared us down from behind. Something struck me as odd about this situation, even more so than the creature being there at all. From what I knew, Wonderland probably wasn’t real. So where then, did the Bandersnatch come from? Was it a creature of the Nevernever?

“May we have a moment, Lady Maeve?” Molly asked. “We need to talk over our options, such as they are.”

What was there to talk about? How we face the creature? Molly and I weren’t Harry Dresden. We couldn’t bend the elements to our whim, light fires with our minds, nor could we do anything flashy like the wizard at all. Thomas was a vampire, and the more he tapped into that strength, the hungrier he’d be. Molly and I were the only ones he could fulfill that hunger with nearby, but Thomas had control. He’d proven that earlier when… Red Court venom is pretty potent. I’m sure I was one hell of a temptation to him, and given that unfortunate sensitivity of mine, I’m… just happy that he managed to control himself. I’m not sure any of his relatives would have done the same.

Maeve seemed to consider my sister’s words. “Yes. I’ll allow you some privacy to discuss this deal amongst yourselves. Please decide quickly; this deal won’t be around forever.”

Maeve stood and nodded to the Leanansidhe—I wasn’t close enough to her to use an affectionate shortening—and the pair of Sidhe walked over to the gathered group of high Sidhe that had busied themselves with talking while pointedly not looking at us. With a wave of Maeve’s hand, the music that had been playing earlier began again, and the Sidhe started dancing in a hypnotic fashion. The Bandersnatch laid down nearby, choosing to stay and not do anything for now. Perhaps without Maeve directing its purpose, it felt like lazing about.

Shaking my head so I could ignore the movements of the beautiful Sidhe, I turned toward Thomas and Molly. They’d shaken themselves out of it as well. “So, uh…”

“This is bad,” Molly said. “You see the claws on that thing?”

“You two shouldn’t be involved. I’ll fight it, and you two can get away and get home,” Thomas said.

I shook my head. “The deal was for the three of us to be entertaining. We’d have a better chance against it if we worked together. The real issue is…”

“You’re new to your abilities,” Thomas deduced. “I know. You two might have potential, but potential doesn’t mean you can rely upon it in a fight.”

Thomas got it. In the fight, Molly and I would be able to rely on one thing for certain: the training that we did with Mom and Daddy. Neither of us were anywhere near as good as our father, Shiro or Sanya, nor did we have holy swords guiding our movements. However, we weren’t really slouches in the self-defense area, and Molly and I knew how to work together. That said, there was something that still bothered me.

“The Bandersnatch,” I mused. “It’s not real.”

“Looks pretty real to me, sis,” Molly said.

“That’s just it. All of this,” I said, waving my arms at the party. “ _Through the Looking Glass_ is a story that was written to amuse a little girl with nonsense poetry and wordplay. Lewis Carroll didn’t do any sort of mythological research when he came up with his poems and worlds. Wonderland and the world beyond the looking glass were a story…”

“What do you think the Nevernever is, Faith?” Thomas asked. “Beings in the Nevernever are given form by story, by myth.”

I glanced at the Bandersnatch, its sharp teeth gleaming in the flickering torchlight. “There’s more to it though. Having that thing ready to be brought out, I mean, I know she’s Winter Lady and that means power…”

Molly frowned. “A setup?”

“She referred to each of us as Venator when speaking directly to us,” I said. “Like it was a title, like she _knew_ what we were here for.”

“Son of a bitch,” Thomas growled out. “They got here first.”

“Who did?” Molly asked. “I mean, obviously the ones who got the book, but you have someone in mind.”

Thomas nodded. “The Stygian Sisterhood. I’d heard rumors that they were active in town, but I hadn’t been able to confirm it with the Ortega duel situation.”

“So, does that mean we need to fight the Bandersnatch?” I asked. “Because if we know who has the book, and that was the answer Maeve would have given, I really don’t want to fight that thing.”

“Neither do I,” Molly said as she wrapped an arm around me. “We might be able to hold it off, but at what cost?”

Thomas grimaced. “I don’t really want to fight it either. Fighting’s not something I enjoy doing.”

“But?” I asked, sensing he had more to say.

“But if Maeve has more information, we won’t know unless we fight it.” Thomas shrugged. “She won’t have us killed, even in a fight with this thing. Violating Guest Right isn’t something that fae can casually do. “

“You’d be surprised what you can live through,” I muttered. “ _Beware the Jabberwock my son, the jaws that bite, the claws that catch. Beware the Jubjub Bird and shun the frumious Bandersnatch._ ”

“So we should shun it,” Molly said. “Ignore it, and leave. Thomas, I don’t think we’ll find out much more from the Winter Lady than what you guessed.”

“And when we do find the book, if we’re already injured from a fight with something we didn’t need to fight,” I said. “We’ll be less useful against whatever or whoever has the book in the first place.”

“Outmaneuvered by a pair of fourteen-year-olds.” Thomas chuckled. “So, what then?”

“Let’s alter the deal,” Molly said.

“And have her pray we don’t alter it further,” I added. “Maeve thinks she holds all the cards here. Let’s surprise her with our topdeck.”

“Bad metaphor, Fai.” Molly nudged me. _What if she forces the issue?_

I shrugged. _Cross that bridge when we come to it, I suppose._

Mollly glanced to the Bandersnatch. _It’s still really big._

“It’s a faerie,” I said aloud. “Probably has all the same weaknesses too.”

Thomas blinked. “I thought we weren’t planning on fighting it.”

“We’re not, but…” I shrugged. _If it comes up, we’ll do what we need to._

“Let’s tell the scary Sidhe lady that we’ve decided,” Molly said.

The three of us stood up, and the music stopped. Maeve’s hair had come undone from the bun and fell in dreadlocks around her elfin face. The Leanansidhe stepped out, walking alongside the Winter Lady as the pair came back to us.

“So, will you agree to my deal?” Maeve asked. “Five minutes of entertainment for the answers you seek.”

“As tempting as that sounds,” I said. “No.”

“No?” Maeve’s voice carried power that chilled my bones, and I had to remind myself that we were here under guest right. She wasn’t going to actually hurt us. She couldn’t.

“N-No,” Molly said. “We’ve got what we needed.”

“And given your party’s theme,” Thomas added. “This is more appropriate than actually fighting it.”

“So, you wish to… shun… the Bandersnatch?” Maeve stared at us. “It will be so disappointed.”

“I don’t wish to fight it, not for your entertainment,” I said, and Maeve turned to me.

“Well, perhaps I can find another form of entertainment, my sweet.” She pulled at her dress, revealing interesting body parts that… Fucking hell.

“Sorry, she’s a minor,” Molly said as she squeezed my hand, hard. “Maybe come back in… ten years?”

“Moll, are you auctioning me off to the Winter Lady?” I asked.

“Nope,” Molly said, her hand squeezing mine tighter. God, she was shaking.

“Lady Maeve, please take the cards in exchange for our passage from here and to the car. When we get to the car, we will give our escort something to bring back for you in apology for not entertaining you this evening.” Thomas’s diplomatic voice sounded sexy, and maybe he was just trying to use his White Court charms to get the Winter Lady to acquiesce.

“La,” the Leanansidhe interjected, and once again my eyes were drawn to the sheathe at her waist. What _was_ that thing? It had power, but it had something else too. Something subtle that was drowned out by the Sidhe presence in this room, but it was there. “They are more polite than my godson, my Lady. Perhaps you should consider this offer.”

Maeve looked to the Leanansidhe, and she nodded. “Thank you, my advisor.” She turned to us, spending way too much time looking at me, without adjusting her dress at all. “Normally, I would consider asking something more of you, but since you have changed to safe passage and initiated the offer yourselves, I must respect you mortals. Additionally, thanks to Miss Carpenter’s art and suggestions, I find myself owing you something.”

I blinked. Maeve was being reasonable. This was not quite what I remembered from the novels about her attitude. Sure, she was blatantly showing herself off in hopes to rise an interest, from either myself or Thomas, but she was being… sane. This actually scared me a bit more. I’d have to write this down when I got home, for Ivy’s sake.

“So, I shall have the Cheshire Cat escort you out in safety,” Maeve said. “And, provided you follow Grimalkin close, you shall be protected from those who would do you harm. When you get to the car, if you wish, leave the gift for Grimalkin to take back.”

The malk appeared on the table suddenly, causing me to jump in surprise. It emitted a rasping sound not unlike a cat’s choking up a hairball mixed with the sound of its voice. It took me a few seconds to realize that it was _laughing_.

Thomas placed a hand on my shoulder, and then he turned to Maeve. “Thank you, Lady Winter. May the rest of your party be enjoyable.”

“Oh, I’m sure it will, Venator,” Maeve said with a grin, as she glanced over to the musicians. “I’m sure it will. Now, Grimalkin, my Cheshire Cat, you know what you must do.”

“Yes, my Lady,” The malk hopped down off the table and walked in front of us, looking all too much like an imperious cat as it did so. “Follow, mortals, and follow closer this time. There are dangers that lurk the tunnels of Undertown, and they do not all serve Winter.”

I nodded in unison with Molly. Neither of us wanted to ask what else was active down here. We likely knew. Given that Daddy and Sanya were still in St. Louis the last Molly checked, she’d have let me know if they were back, there really was only one set of options for what would be down here.

Grimalkin led us back through the tunnels, following the route we took when we came in in reverse. He’d stayed visible this time, perhaps wanting to save some of his skills for a swift return to the Winter Lady. We kept close to him, moving swiftly, but not in an outright run. When he stopped, we stopped, and when he moved, we moved.

We came across a cross tunnel, when suddenly, he called out, “Hold! And stay quietly out of sight, mortals.”

Nodding to Molly, the two of us dipped into a crevice nearby, while Thomas stood opposite us in the tunnel. We heard it then, multiple footsteps. They sounded like a squadron’s worth of boots coming down the tunnel, and there was a scraping noise, like something sliding along the ground and the sound of metallic blades impacting the ground one right after the other. We continued hiding, and watched as a group of… well, they looked like men with guns, AK-47s to be exact, and they walked through the tunnel, leading the way for something that scared me far more than Maeve did.

The first we saw was what might have been a man, if you could only see his torso. From his neck to his waist was a bare-chested man, but his head was a flattened snake’s head, and below the waist was a long serpent’s tail. He had dark grey scales, some of which looked rusted. His eyes, and it definitely was a he, were golden and serpentine. A second set of eyes, glowing blue-green reflected from within the first pair, and a sigil of pulsing light showed within the scales of the snake’s head. Denarian. Shit. We needed to be quiet. In his arms, he held… he held… That was Harry! Harry Dresden was carried by the snake man.

I looked across to Thomas, who noticed it too, and I saw him tensing. I shook my head. This was not a fight we wanted. At all. Glancing back to the group, I saw another Denarian, female. Her legs were hinged and reverse-jointed, with the claws of a panther. Her body was coated in metallic green scales and had four-fingered, metallic-clawed hands. Her two sets of eyes were luminescent green, and a set of cherry red, matching the sigil at the center of her forehead. Her hair, however, was her most imposing feature. The metallic hair resembled one-inch strips of sheet metal and it was long enough and clearly strong enough to support her off of the ground. She used it to walk the tunnel. Behind the two Denarians, however, was a man. Looking at him, I knew who he was. I knew _what_ he was. He carried with him a tube, full of God knows what. Judging from his shadow, the noose around his neck, and the way he looked, I knew who he was. Nicodemus Archleone looked nothing like I dreamed.

He looked down our passage, and I clinged tightly to the wall. Curling his upper lip in a sneer, he scoffed. “Faeries. They’ll get theirs soon enough.”

His shadow passed down the tunnel, but only for a second before returning to him, and he continued his walk. After three minutes of waiting, Grimalkin appeared again. “Come, mortals. You need to get going.”

Thomas turned to us. “Tell me I wasn’t seeing things. Was that Harry?”

I nodded. “Yes… it was. He’ll be fine, however. He’ll make it to the duel tonight.”

“He better,” Thomas said. “I told him I wasn’t going to get involved.”

“You won’t have to,” Molly said. “This is a job for the Knights. Let’s focus on ours.”

Thomas nodded and we followed Grimalkin further, eventually coming to where we entered Undertown. We climbed out, and Grimalkin continued to lead us to the car. Upon reaching the parking lot, Grimalkin stiffened.

“Apologies, mortals, but my Queen calls me. Thy automobile is there. Leave thy gift for the Winter Lady in the lot, and I will retrieve it for her.” The malk said, sounding genuinely repentant. “I shall see thee again, I am certain.”

“Wait. Where are you—” The malk had disappeared as I spoke to it. Its queen called it. Did that mean Mab? Mab was the Winter Queen, as I remembered it, but then there was something like three queens for each side. The Queen Who Was, the Queen Who Is, and the Queen Who Is yet to come: Mother, Queen, Lady. Mab was Queen of Winter; Maeve was its Lady. “Huh. Guess it had more important things.”

Thomas nodded. “Seems that way. Let’s leave the copy of _Through the Looking Glass_ for Maeve.”

“Seems like a good plan.” Molly wrapped her arm around me. We were about one hundred or so feet from the car’s spot in the lot, near the cars that had long since been abandoned. “Looks like we didn’t need to use these swords after all, Thomas.”

We heard a roar then, and the sound of claws on concrete. Thomas leveled his shotgun as the Bandersnatch stepped out of a newly formed portal from... somewhere. I assumed the Nevernever.

“Stay behind me, girls,” Thomas ordered. “It looks like the shunning offended it.”

Guess avoiding that fight wasn’t an option, after all.

*****************

The Bandersnatch roared as it fully stepped out of the portal, reminding me of a mix between a lion and a grizzly bear. It seemed bigger, once emerged, of course that was probably because as soon as its feet touched the asphalt, it charged toward us, picking up momentum and speed.

“Scatter!” Thomas ordered before pulling the trigger on his shotgun. The sawed-off shotgun let out a deafening boom and a flare of flame as whatever Thomas had loaded it with launched at the Bandersnatch at high speeds. Let’s be clear about something. Shotguns are _very_ loud. A sickening squelch could be heard when the shot struck true, causing hissing steam and a clear slime to drip off of the creature. Unfortunately, the wound didn’t even slow the Bandersnatch down, and that prompted my sister and I to follow Thomas’s order. Molly ran left, and I ran right, even as Thomas another shot into the frumious charger. The shots did little to abate the creature’s momentum, so Thomas backed away, clearly tapping into whatever supernatural gifts he had from his vampiric state as his eyes gained a silvery sheen.

The Bandersnatch pounced, mid-charge, bounding over asphalt and concrete like a comet, and Thomas answered by reversing his direction and running forward, underneath the great beast. He lowered his shotgun to his side and in a fluid motion, unsheathed his silvered kukri, slashing upward into the belly of the Bandersnatch. More of the clear goo dripped to the ground as the Bandersnatch landed, pacing around in a circle like a big cat mid-hunt. Thomas followed it around waving his kukri at the beast, attempting to keep its attention.

Molly and I hung back, our hands on our own blades. While the two of us had some training, we were nowhere near as good as Daddy, Mom, or Shiro. We certainly weren’t good enough that we could rush in and help Thomas directly here. We’d just get in the way, and if we got in the way, not only would Thomas be dead, but we would as well. I didn’t want that. Glancing over to Molly, I knew she didn’t either.

Of course, the Bandersnatch had other ideas. Halfway through its circular pace, it broke away, running directly at Molly. Okay. I’d been fine letting Thomas fight the thing alone before. _Nobody fucks with my sister._ I pulled out the kukri that I’d been holding onto all night, not even bothering to think about how well balanced it was, and I charged. Adrenaline pumping through my veins had me at the Bandersnatch’s back before I could even think about what I was doing, and I slashed at its tail. My blade dug into the pseudo-flesh of the fae beast, and the smell of burnt fur and sizzling flesh reached my nose. Rearing up mid-charge, the Bandersnatch turned toward the source of its newfound pain—me.

“That’s right, you son of a bitch! Come on!” Why was I taunting this thing? Its claws were as big as my head! And they were coming straight for my head!

In an instant, I was no longer in the way of the claws, having been shoved away quickly. I heard a hissing clang as the claws struck metal. Looking back, I saw Thomas standing there, holding the claws back with his kukri, steam coming off of the claws of the frumious Bandersnatch. At least I think it was Thomas, his skin was paler, nearly marble, and his eyes were silvered.

“Get away, now!” Thomas ordered, but Molly came up behind the beast, her own kukri unsheathed, and slashed the hamstring on its rear right leg.

Roaring in pain, the Bandersnatch stepped backward, clearly intending to retaliate.

“No, you don’t!” Thomas pushed the claw off, gaining even more of a marble hue, and drove his kukri into the Bandersnatch’s exposed chest. Taking advantage of Thomas’s distraction, I ran over to my sister, and the two of us followed up Thomas’s stab with a slash on its spine.

The beast’s tail wrapped around my leg and pulled, dragging me down to the ground hard. I practically bounced off of the asphalt, but I’d managed to keep my head from striking it.

“Let me go, you fucking bearcat!” I slashed down at the tail, avoiding my leg, repeatedly, but the Bandersnatch pulled tighter with each slash. I could feel the circulation get cut off in my leg with each tightening of the tail.

“Faith!” Molly called out, and just as the Bandersnatch began to lift me into the air, Molly cut deep into the tail right at the perfect angle. The tail loosened as Molly’s slash did its trick, but I’d already been lifted into the air. Somehow, however, Thomas had managed to make it beneath me, his statuesque arms outstretched. Catching me, he set me on the ground, and I noticed just how silver his eyes were, how perfect his body was. God, he was tapping into his Hunger. He picked his shotgun up off of where it hung down and started loading shells into it.

“You two, get to the car!” Thomas ordered. “Get inside it and get safe!”

“It’s your car!” I yelled as the Bandersnatch’s massive claws came down once more, Thomas shoved me and rolled out of the way. Swiftly regaining my footing, I swung my kukri up, attempting to hamstring its forepaw, but instead it leaped forward, striking me in the gut with a headbutt. I say gut, but it was more the entire front of my body, knocking me backward in the air. I leaned into the fall, using what I learned as a kid, and rolled to my feet. This thing wasn’t going to take us down. Not if we could help it. Wait a second. “Thomas, Molly! The other cars!”

The lot we’d parked in held four cars that had been stripped down, practically to bare metal. They weren’t really all that notable when we came into the lot, given how decrepit and old they were, but in this case, that age would be an advantage. The Bandersnatch had proven to be susceptible to the blades, reacting like a faerie would to iron. The sizzle was how I could tell, but given its size, it was going to take a significantly higher amount of iron to take it out. That’s where the cars came in. If we could lure the Bandersnatch to the busted up cars and trick it into hitting those, it’d be injuring itself. Perhaps long enough for us to get away in Thomas’s car, or enough that Thomas could finish it off.

Neither Molly nor I were wizards. We couldn’t just toss the car at the creature and hope for the best, and I didn’t think Thomas had the strength himself, even if he were to tap completely into his Hunger.

“I told you to get in the car, Faith!” Thomas yelled as he dashed toward one of the other vehicles. The Bandersnatch was… Crap. It wasn’t chasing Thomas. It was stalking toward me. I ran. The Bandersnatch followed. I wasn’t faster than the Bandersnatch, but it took a little to get up to full speed. I didn’t need to be completely faster than it. I just needed to be fast enough. I dashed toward one of the abandoned cars as the Bandersnatch followed, and I dove through the missing door. The Bandersnatch, still after me, struck the stripped-down car like a freight train, all steam and power, but the steel of its frame did its job as the beast roared in pain.

Unfortunately for me, the impact on the car sent it rolling through the air. I clutched the seat as the car tumbled side over side, and end over end. This car had one of those bench seats in the front, and I clutched as tightly as I could at the nearly destroyed faux-leather. I had nowhere near the time nor the ability to get a seatbelt on.

“So… glad that I don’t get motion sick…” I mumbled and my fingers started to slip. How hard had the Bandersnatch hit this thing? It felt like I’d been tumbling forever. I looked out the side, and all I could see was the asphalt, the sky, the oncoming wall, the sky, the what? The car slammed hard into the wall of… I really, don’t know, and my momentum didn’t stop.

“Faith!” I heard my sister’s voice calling me. I heard the Bandersnatch roar in pain and two firings of the shotgun. “Faith, damnit! Faith!”

_It’s okay Molly… I’ll be okay. I’m fine. I just need to…_ Oh, God, I hoped that wasn’t blood. I hoped that wasn’t…

“ _FAITH!”_

  



	20. Chapter Eighteen

“Faith!”

I shook my head, blinking for a second. Wasn’t I just...?

“Fai, did you zone out or something?” Cecelia snapped her fingers in front of my face, and I blinked again. Oh, that’s right. Gym class. We had some time to change before class, so we were in the locker room. Our school’s locker room was nothing special really, rows of lockers, a few benches between them, and a shower area to get clean after class. We typically were allowed a good twenty minutes’ leeway after we finished class to make sure we got changed back into our uniforms properly and weren’t overly sweaty. “I mean, I know there was the fire thing and all, but are you sure you’re okay?”

I smiled. “Yeah, I’m fine, Cece. Just… Got a bit lost in thought.” What had that been, really? I mean yeah, the fire had happened in programming that day, but I didn’t think that smoke inhalation could cause hallucinations. Of course, I wasn’t a doctor or nurse in this life or the last, so I couldn’t really be certain on that one. For all I knew, it easily could have been the cause.

“Fai… that happens too often, girl.” I wish Cecelia wouldn’t worry about me that much. We’d been friends for a few years now, and she’d kinda taken it upon herself to be mine and Molly’s unofficial big sister sometimes. She really wasn’t all that much older than us, less than a year, but it was enough that it counted.

“Yeah, yeah,” I said, removing my uniform’s sweater. Geeze, Molly and I had done one hell of a job to it and my blouse this morning, well, really the whole uniform. Not that I looked bad like this or anything, but it wasn’t a way I wanted to come to school every day. “At least they didn’t cancel the rest of the day or anything.”

“Yeah, I suppose. Your mom coming and seeing you like that? Nice bra, by the way. Help me with mine?” Cecelia stood in front of me, and I undid the clasps so she could go change into her gym outfit. The school had a standard gym uniform of shorts and a tee shirt in the spring and summertime and sweatpants and sweatshirt with the logo in the late fall and winter, like now. Typically, I wore the tee under the sweatshirt, along with some appropriate underwear, and today really wasn’t all that different save for the need to change more than just the outer layers. I didn’t want things to get sweatier than they already were from standing in that computer room as it went up. Totally not my fault, by the way.

“So, Cece,” I said, pulling my stockings off and rolling them up. I stuck them in the locker as I continued. “What’s going on with you and Jace? The two of you were sitting pretty close at lunch today.”

“Oh, nothing…” Cecelia sighed wistfully before pulling her tee shirt over her head. At least I think it sounded wistful. She seemed to be a little bit down on herself.

“Really? It didn’t look like nothing. Drew noticed too. I could see it.” Well, that was weird. A flare-up of something, jealousy, maybe? Why would Cecelia be jealous when I mentioned Drew’s noticing? “Cece, if you like the guy, let him know. Jace’s a geek, so he might not work up the courage to mention it himself.”

Lord knows I didn’t in my past life. It was far too easy to be friends with girls at that point in time than it was to even consider them as potential girlfriends. I hadn’t managed to even get a girlfriend until I tried out the online dating thing, and God, if that wasn’t something I didn’t really want to remember clearly, I didn’t know what was. It still hurt to think that my girlfriend was gone and out of reach, but I didn’t think she’d want to be with me now. Honestly, I wouldn’t blame her either. New life, new potential for love. An over thirty-year age difference would be pretty bad anyway unless she was immortal. Never mind.

“Oh, let him know, just like that?” Cecelia asked wanly. “What about you and Becca, hmm? Or you and Drew?”

“Drew and I are just friends,” I said, perhaps a bit too quickly. I slipped on my sweats and tee shirt. “Becca… well, uh… it’s complicated.”

“Mmm… don’t want to let your mom know you like girls, eh?”

“Don’t want to let her know I like _anyone_ , really.” I shook my head. “Not really sure what I like, anyway.”

“Your secret’s safe with me, Fai.” Cecelia offered me a smile. “So, what was with the whole copying of Molly’s look today anyway?”

“Little bit of playing up the twin thing.” I shrugged. “Kinda missed doing it.”

“Thought the reason you two cut your hair different and she started doing the goth shred was to get _away_ from the twin thing,” Cecelia said. “Now you want to start doing it again?”

“What can I say? I love my sister.”

“God, I’m glad I’m an only child.”

“Please, you’ve been an honorary big sister for us since you were seven and we were six.”

“Yes, but I get to leave you all behind at the end of the day.”

“Oh, that hurts,” I said, covering my heart. “Right here.”

“So, does this mean you’re going to dress like Molly every day?” Cecelia asked. “Because if it does, I’m going to need fair warning so I can compete.”

“Compete?” I cocked my head slightly and attempted to raise an eyebrow. I’m not actually all that good at raising a single eyebrow, so it probably looked really stupid.

“Well, you guys cut up the uniform. I’m going to do my own mods. I’ve had some ideas for a while,” Cecelia said. “Lower neckline, tighter skirt. As long as it’s still recognizable as the uniform, it should be good.”

I shook my head. Cecelia was definitely attractive enough to try it out. “Yeah, I suppose I could try.”

“Do or do not,” Cecelia said, pulling up her sweatpants. “There is no try. Hey Fai, do you mind if I borrow your brush? I left mine at home today.”

“Oh sure, it’s in my bag. Just make sure you put it back when you’re done.” I stood up. It was about time to get to the gym. Molly’d already changed and gone ahead while Cecelia and I were talking. The two of us usually were the last two out of the locker room, anyway.

“Gotcha. Go on ahead, I’ll catch up.” Cecelia waved me off, and I nodded, heading for the door out.

Opening the locker room’s door, I stepped out, not into the halls of the school so I could get to the gym, but instead, I stepped into the gaming area of _Heroes, Villains and Bystanders_ , the comics and games shop that Molly and I played Magic at. The tables were all empty, and nobody milled about, asking about the latest cards or asking for a game. The counters were devoid of anything or anyone. I was alone in the store save for one person.

She was wearing heeled leather boots stopping below the knee and lace stockings that went up to mid-thigh. She had a short leather miniskirt and leather jacket overtop of a lace blouse with a neckline so low that it made me want to blush. Her hair was pitch black, as were her lips and nails, but the only piercings she had that I could see were in her ears. Five hoop rings on the right lobe, and one dangling crucifix from either ear in a normal area. I recognized the girl’s face. It was the same one I saw in the mirror every morning, the exact same one, save for the makeup.

She smiled at me. “Faith! Good to see you! Have a seat.” She gestured at the table near her. “We need to talk.”

*****************

Okay. Well. What the hell was going on here? My doppelganger’s voice was identical to my own as _I_ heard it, with my inflections, albeit with a tone that hinted at withheld aggression. Who was this person, and how were they here, and how did I get to the comic shop, and when did this happen? What the actual fuck was going on?

My doppelganger started buffing her nails on her lace blouse. I hadn’t noticed before, but her eyeshadow made her face look all the paler and her eyes stand out more. It really was a good look for me, but I wasn’t the one—

“Okay, let me just stop you there, Faith,” my doppelganger said, gesturing again at the seat. “Take the seat, we’ll talk, and when we’re done, you can go. Probably.”

“Okay but wh—”

“Take the seat. We can talk. But to answer your question, isn’t it obvious?”

I pulled out the chair across from her and sat down. “I didn’t pick up any silver coin recently, so something must be messing with me.”

My doppelganger let out a frustrated growl. “No, you moron. I’m you. Well, sorta.”

“Sorta?” I raised an eyebrow, successfully this time.

“I’m the you you wish you could be,” she said. “Or I’m the you that you believe should be in here because Harry’s got one.”

“In here?” Clearly I was missing something.

“Clearly you are. In your head, Faith. Or did you forget what just happened out there? Get hit a little too hard? Bounce off the concrete?” My voice should not be used to mock me like that. “Aw, is widdle baby Faith going to cry?”

“Fuck off,” I growled. “You said you wanted to talk. So talk.”

“Touchy.” She pulled out her own seat. “First time we’re meeting and all, and you’re already all pissed off at me.”

“The hell are we meeting for anyway?” I asked. “Normal people don’t talk to their… whatever you are. Subconscious. Id.”

“Come now, Faith. We both know you’ve never been normal,” the other Faith said. “Not in this lifetime anyway. Maybe in the last one, but then again…”

“That was a long time ago.”

“Yes, it was, and you need to stop trying to hold on to so much. Remembering might be important, but you’re not him anymore. You’re Faith Jessica Samantha Carpenter.” She’d said my name. No, more than that, she’d said my Name, exactly as I do. Exactly as I considered it, and I _felt_ it reverberate. “If you were still him, even a little bit, that wouldn’t have done that. You know it. You remember what Harry said about Names.”

“Identity. And I’m not trying to hold onto the past. I just need to remember. I need to—”

“What? Save Shiro? That bridge is burned. The old man is dying and there’s nothing we can do about it. Unless…”

“Unless what?” I wanted the hope, I wanted to hope.

“Take Lasciel. Steal the coin from Nicodemus, take her power for our own. Use her phenomenal cosmic power and itty bitty living space to our advantage. I’m sure, once we shared our knowledge with her, she’d know exactly what needed to be done. Or hell, we don’t even need to take up the coin itself. Just work with Lash. The shadow has all that angel’s knowledge, and we have magic.”

“Fuck no. Just… no.” I shook my head. There was no way in Hell I was going to take up one of the Blackened Denarii. Lasciel and the other coins scared the everliving shit out of me, and I knew that I didn’t have the will to hold back whatever the Shadow had planned.

“Because you aren’t Harry Dresden,” the other Faith said. “Harry’s got a stubborn streak a mile wide, that he’s able to fucking _turn_ a shade to his side, even one of the Fallen. We’d be consumed within a year.”

“Glad to see that you can see reason.”

“Please. You’re the reasonable one. I’m just not willing to sacrifice our self for some trinket that promises power. We can gain power all on our own. We _have_ power all on our own.” She folded her arms. “Power you neglected to use.”

“I don’t think—”

“That what, it could have been useful? That you could have pulled it off?” She shook her head. “You didn’t even try. Sister dearest isn’t innocent either. She could have hid us, hid Thomas, and we could have played an entirely different game with that beast.”

“I’m untrained, damnit. Molly too! Hell I tried to avoid that fight! We’re not as good as—”

“Harry? No, of course not. With that attitude, we never will be either. Daddy? Mom? Please. The only advantage that Harry and Mom have over us is experience. And maybe power. But the former comes with time, and the latter comes with price. Avoiding the fight is admirable though. Trying to impress Sanya? Or perhaps Thomas?”

“What? No. No…” I shook my head. “A wise man said that fighting is never good.”

“But sometimes, it is necessary. And this one was. And if you don’t use every advantage you have in a fight for your life, you deserve what’s coming to you. Seeing as I don’t want to die due to your refusal to even try everything…”

“I don’t want to die. Not again.” I shook my head.

“Good thing you’re only unconscious then.” Unconscious, but I wasn’t really feeling any pain. Maybe that was a result of me being unconscious, as often it was possible to sleep through pain. I had no idea how injured I was, or… oh God. What would Mom do if I came home hurt? “Pretty sure you’re not hurt too bad. Well. If Mom found out, you’d probably be in the hospital or at least lying down and grounded, but Mom doesn’t really need to find out. Not when that book is still out there.”

“I don’t want her finding out about our magic until Molly’s ready to tell. Which hopefully will be after we manage to get Harry to start teaching us.”

“It’s cute that you think it will be that easy.” She laughed. “But who knows? Maybe it will, maybe it won’t. You just need to find the right time to ask Harry.”

Which wasn’t while he was busy fighting Denarians, nor while we were involved in finding this book. I needed to catch him at one of his better times and let him know that Molly and I had magic. The trick would be to… Hope that we could catch him at a good time.

“In the meantime, you need to learn. Both you and sister dearest. You have power, and you’re going to find the time and the necessity to use that power. The next time your life is in mortal danger, you better fucking use it. Else a conversation with me will be the least of your concerns,” the other me said, and then she gestured vaguely behind me. “Eventually, we’ll have to deal with _that_. If we can’t light up the night when dealing with that thing, we _will die_ or worse.”

“Turn. Like…” I shook my head.

“Now she’s getting it. Lea had that with her. It’s only a matter of time before Maeve gets what Lea has.”

“So when I…”

“Yep. That’s exactly what you need to do when you can.”

Oh, the lengths to which that was a bad idea were many, but it was a necessary one. Oh God, it was necessary. One little change. An early warning. Maybe it’d save a life.

“After this. I’ll prepare what I can. After this mess.”

The other Faith blurred some, and she smiled. “Looks like you’re not stuck with me much longer. Maybe it will be Thomas’s gorgeous face waking us up.”

“Stupid sexy vampire,” I groused. “Molly’ll be there.”

“Yes, sister dearest is like that. Worries too much.” My subconscious self blurred more, and I could feel a vague throbbing sensation in my forehead and on the crown of my head. “Don’t forget what I said, Faith.”

“I won’t,” I promised as I started to open my eyes, light from… something, pouring into them. Shapes were blurry at first, but they took on a form of my sister’s face, framed by nearly unmarred hair. She was clean, too.

“Faith!” Molly hugged me.

“Did we win?” I slurred out, slightly, noticing I was on a nice leather seat, laying down almost flat. My legs had been propped up against the front seat.

“We won, but you nearly lost my sister’s sword. Pity, that.” Thomas must have been in the driver’s seat. “Now that you’re awake, we can get the two of you home, assuming you’re okay.”

I looked at my sister, and lightly raised a hand to my throbbing skull, giving it a rub. With Molly this close, the pain was definitely at a tolerable level, but it still fucking hurt. “I think I’ll be fine. I’m not bleeding, am I?”

“No, I checked.” Molly patted down my head lightly, and I winced as she brushed over the problem area. “No blood, but you’re going to have one heck of a knot there in the morning.”

“Oh. Good.” I leaned back in the seat some. “Thomas, you good?”

“I will be once I get the two of you home,” he said. God, he must have been hungry from the power he used, and we were testing his control just by being here.

“Then let’s go home,” I said. “Mom’s probably wondering why we’re not there yet anyway.”

“Yeah,” Molly said. “Let’s.”

God, I was looking forward to just laying down in my bed and passing out for the night. Assuming I didn’t have a concussion. Even if I did though, I could probably sleep it off.

That was the right thing to do for concussions, right?

  



	21. Chapter Nineteen

Molly directed Thomas to drop us off where I’d had him drop me the previous night, and she helped me out of the car. Once out of the back seat, I wobbled a bit, but with my sister’s help, I managed to keep standing. God, would you please tell the world to stay steady? I’d be ever so grateful. Gah. I needed to keep myself standing, but the world didn’t want to agree with my attempts. Luckily Molly kept supporting me, and we turned to the car.

“I’ll be busy tomorrow night,” Thomas said. “But I’ll let you guys know if I find out anything about the activities of the Stygian Sisterhood.”

“Okay…” I wasn’t entirely certain how I sounded at that point in time. Did I stretch a sound or two, or was I good?

“We’ll give you a call if we find out anything,” Molly said.

Thomas nodded, and I saw his eyes flare silver.

“Thomas, go eat something, but be careful.”

“Don’t!” Thomas raised his voice sharply, but then he softened. “Don’t tell me to do that. You shouldn’t be telling me that.”

“S-sorry,” I said, and Molly pulled at my arm.

“I’ll see the two of you later.” Thomas got in his car and drove off, turning up his stereo as he did so. I could hear the metal blaring as he drove off.

“Fai, let’s get home,” Molly said.

“And hope Mom’s asleep.” I let Molly take the lead, stepping as carefully as I could so I wouldn’t fall over. Head injuries suck. Hard. But at least I seemed to be able to move around and talk, even if my body moved like it was drunk. “Moll, do I look?”

“Can’t even see them, Fai.” Molly ran a hand over my head, lightly brushing over my impact injuries. “Which, is lucky, I suppose. Two more inches to the left, and you’d have been bleeding out when we got you.”

I shuddered. I didn’t want to die. Not again. I loved the life I had now, even if it was different. “I don’t want to leave you alone, Moll.”

“I know. Gate’s coming up.” We approached the front door of our house, which even at night looked welcoming. Daddy had done a great job with the construction work he’d put into the place, and he’d managed to make it work for all eight of us kids. God, I didn’t even want to think of the sacrifices he must have made for us, nor did I want to think about those he must have made as a Knight. The porch light was on, as was the light in the living room. When we walked up to the door, Molly got out her key.

“You know; I think tonight was a prerelease event. Started at midnight,” I said as Molly inserted her key. “We could have been much later if we’d gone to that. Slept till noon tomorrow too.”

“No, Fai. The prerelease is in two weeks, remember?” Molly must have been humoring me some. “Now be quiet, I don’t want to…”

After Molly finished unlocking the door, the door opened. Our mom stood there, looking down at us from her ever so slightly taller vantage point. I didn’t want to let her know I was injured. At all. I’d have to explain the injury, tell her in excruciating detail how it had happened, and then I’d have to listen to her explain everything she was doing to treat the injury as she did it. She’d also probably not let me get more than a moment’s peace for a good month and a half. When I fell out of the tree and broke my arm four years ago, that was exactly what had happened.

She stared at us in the doorway, almost as if trying to place us, but then she stepped aside so we could come in. The moment we crossed the threshold, she wrapped the two of us up in a hug. “You’re late. You should have been home an hour ago.”

“Sorry, Mom,” Molly said as she hugged her back, my own arms joining in on it. “We tried to call…”

“But our ride’s phone died before we could use it,” I said.

 _Technically, that’s not even a lie._ Molly nudged me slightly.

 _Oh?_ I leaned into the hug with Mom. “We got caught up in traffic.”

“There was this car accident,” Molly said. “It looked like someone got hurt.”

“I’m just glad you two are home safe,” Mom said before releasing the hug. Molly kept her grip on me so my slight wobble didn’t cause me to fall over.

“Daddy’s not back yet?” I asked.

“No. He and Sanya haven’t even called.” Oh. Oh shit. That was what had Mom so worried. Daddy had to be fine because he was Daddy though. Sanya wouldn’t let anything happen to him, and Daddy would watch Sanya’s back.

“What about Shiro?” Molly asked. “Did he get back from that thing with Harry?”

Mom frowned at the casual mention of Harry’s name. She really didn’t like him for some reason. I didn’t know why; Harry always seemed like a nice enough guy for me. To me. I meant to me. Harry Dresden saved my life once, and I’d never forget that. Mom probably just blamed him for me getting in that danger in the first place. It wasn’t fair to Harry, but Mom was protective of us. Which made things awkward with anyone Molly wanted to bring home. I, of course, haven’t had that issue.

“Shiro’s… He got back from the meeting about the duel, but then he…” Mom paused, looking toward the staircase. “He got one of those messages, like your father. When he opened the door, Susan Rodriguez was there with an injured woman and a driver. She was asking for your father.”

This was because of Harry. The Denarians had taken him. We’d _seen_ him taken, and this was… this was what would lead to the death of a very good man. This was the death he freely accepted, but for Shiro, three days would not be long enough to bring him back for Harry’s sins.

“Shiro went with her,” I said quietly. “To help Harry.”

Mom’s frown appeared again, but she nodded. “Mr. Dresden got himself involved in something that your father, Sanya and Shiro asked him not to. Given the wizard’s stubborn streak, I’ve no doubt that he’ll pull through this, with Shiro’s help.”

Molly nodded. “Anything else, Mom? You mentioned someone injured?”

“She was in shock when we brought her in here,” Mom said. “But Miss Rodriguez and I managed to get her into a bed. She’s asleep now.”

I yawned. Bed sounded good. Molly squeezed my shoulder. “That’s what we should be doing. Don’t stay up all night waiting for Daddy, Mom.”

“Molly,” Mom said, looking at both of us. “What is it you’re not telling me?”

“Nothing!” Molly managed to whine that out rather than panic. “Mom, I’m just tired, and Fai is too. Look at her, she’s practically asleep on my shoulder.”

I perked up at that. “I’m okay. Where’s Miss Injured person staying though? And we’re not grounded, right?”

I’m not sure how Mom managed to combine a grimace with a smile, but she did. “No. Shiro managed to convince me that you two shouldn’t be grounded for this. If you come home late without calling again, however… That’s a different story. As for where the lady is, Faith. She’s in your bedroom, on your bed. I’m sorry, but you can’t use your bed tonight.”

“‘sokay.” I yawned again. “I’ll climb next to Molly.”

“Good night, Mom,” Molly said as she dragged me off, upstairs. Mom called after us, wishing us a good night, and we made it up to our bedroom. Sure enough, laying in my bed was a beautiful older woman. Her blonde hair was disheveled, and her body was mostly covered by my comforter, but I could tell she was good looking. She probably had a British accent too.

Molly and I, with a little trouble, changed into what we were going to sleep in. It was too much of a hassle to get the pajamas on, so I threw on an old t-shirt and stripped down to just panties, and Molly decided to do the same. Climbing into bed, we covered ourselves up. Laying near Molly, the pain in my head abated some, just enough that I could…

Fall…

                                              Into….

Blissful…

Sleep…

I dreamed. You can take the red pill or the blue pill. Take the blue pill, and you return to your sad, unordinary life, blissfully unaware of everything around you. Or take the red, and see how deep the rabbit hole goes.

God, I hated blue dresses. Curiouser and curiouser, the world did seem to part.

“The time has come, dear Faith,” the Winter Lady said. “To talk of many things. Of ships, and vamps, and whorey tramps, and the Adversary’s wings.”

What the hell was she on about? The Winter Lady…

“Of why Nemesis is in the knife, and how the gunshot rings.”

An island. Darkness. Mud. Restrained blonde. Gunshot. Body. Collapsed girl. Released blonde. Gunshot. Body. _My sister!_

“A little time,” I said in rhyme, “Is what we chiefly need. Magic and planning besides are very good indeed.”

“Now if you’re ready, sister dear,” Molly, the Winter Lady said. “We can begin taking heed.”

“It just takes a spark,” I said on a lark.

“And what do you think you can do?”

“Mess with fate, get there late, take the pressure off of you.”

“The time has come,” Lady Winter said.

And my eyes shot open, my head throbbing badly. God, that was a fucked up dream. Molly, the Winter Lady… It wouldn’t happen that way. I wouldn’t let it. Koo koo kachoo, fucker. I brushed Molly’s hair out of her face and kissed her forehead. Her eyes opened for a second, and she smiled.

“Go back to sleep, Moll,” I whispered. “It’s Saturday.”

“Kay.” She yawned and rolled over. I used that opportunity to slip out of the bed, and I pulled on some pajama pants over my bottoms. I glanced over to my bed, to see that the injured lady still rested there. Valmont. Ms. Valmont. That was her name. I wasn’t quite sure why I didn’t remember before this point, but I wasn’t going to question why one of the Churchmice was in our home. The answer, in all of this, was Denarians. Except for where that damn book was.

I crept downstairs, carefully so as to not wake any of the jawas or Mom. I needed some alone time to think, and preferably some good tea. Once in the kitchen, I got out the kettle and my tea ball. I didn’t want to say that I was a tea snob or anything, but I preferred fresher tea to the kind that was in the bag. It tended to taste better. Filling the kettle, I placed it on the stove. I grabbed my tea container, and I spooned some of the leaves into the ball before closing it. I then went to the medicine cabinet and popped two ibuprofen, swallowing without liquid assistance.

God, what a fucked up past couple days it had been. Magic. Shiro. Faeries. _Denarians_. Vampires. The fucking Oblivion War. I knew. I knew when I realized what was going on here, when I realized just which Carpenter family I was a member of. I knew that I’d be involved. I wouldn’t be able to stop myself. With or without magic, I’d do what I needed to in order to keep my sister, my sisters and brothers safe. Including from me and my knowledge. It really wasn’t Harry’s fault. It was my own.

Looking at the table, I pondered. I needed to figure out how to use my magic. If I could have repeated what I did against the Batistes, I wouldn’t be in the pain I was in now. I’d have just gotten through the car and out of the way of the charging faerie. Training would help. Practice would too. Maybe I could try levitating something while I was waiting for the tea to boil.

Doing my best to clear my mind, I focused on a single fork in front of me. Perhaps it would have been easier if it were a spoon, but I tried to gather energy anyway. I needed to believe that I could move that fork. To believe that I should move that fork. To believe that it could just float up, defying gravity and then spin around. I needed to want it. I needed to believe in it. This was a spell.

“Winga—” I cut myself off as I heard the door opening, releasing whatever energy I’d managed to gather. Whoever was coming inside didn’t need to see a fork floating through the air. Besides. I’d need a better spell name than _Wingardium Leviosa_. Please. This was real magic, not Harry Potter.

The kitchen’s door to outside opened fully at this point, revealing my daddy, in full Knight regalia. Daddy always looked amazing when he went out dressed as a Templar. It also allowed him to carry his sword mostly unmolested, as people tended to assume he was an actor of some sort. Of course, that was all moot as I instinctively ran over to him and wrapped my arms around him.

“Daddy, it’s good to see you.” Even when I know he’s probably coming home safe, I hate seeing him leave like that. I swear that I worry almost as much as Mom does. One day, luck won’t be on his side, but maybe I can be.

“Faith, good morning.” Daddy didn’t even need to check my hair to know it was me. To be fair, Mom didn’t really need to either, but it felt better when he did. He returned the hug. “I’m glad to see you as well, but… as your mother says. We don’t own the electric company.”

I blushed. “Ah, right.” I released the hug so we could get inside, and then I walked over to the counter to get out another mug and a teabag. “Where’s Sanya?”

“He chose to spend the morning in a hotel, sleeping until we need to go to St. Mary’s.”

“Ah… so you still have some duties then?”

“Until the current threat is stopped, yes. Where are your mother and Shiro?”

“Mom’s… either on the couch asleep, waiting for you, or she made it up to the room last night,” I said, pausing for a second. “Shiro… I think you’ll have to ask Harry about that. Or Ms. Rodriguez. One of them might know.”

“Ah. Well, that can wait until later.” Daddy pulled off his breastplate and shoulder plates, laying them down near the table before propping _Amoracchius_ up against the wall. I could feel the blade’s hum from here, more so when Daddy released his grip from it. “So, Faith, how was school yesterday?”

“I think I’m going to have to transfer out of Programming,” I said.

“Why?”

“There was a fire, yesterday. I think it took out several of the computers. I don’t know if the school has the funds to replace them,” I said. What I didn’t add was that the fire was probably my fault, though I would never admit that aloud if I could help it. “Maybe I’ll take up metal shop. I always like helping Mom with your armor.”

“A fire?” Daddy wrapped an arm around me, and started looking me over. “You don’t look like you are suffering from any sort of smoke inhalation issues. Thank the Lord.”

“I wasn’t in there long,” I said. “They didn’t even have to cancel the rest of the school day.”

“That’s good.” He ran his hand over my shoulder, and then he wrapped me in a full hug once more.

“Daddy, we have one of the people who stole the Shroud upstairs in Molly’s and my bedroom. She’s… shaken up quite a bit, maybe a bit injured. I think… it was your monsters.”

“You might be right, but that’s something to worry about a little later, Lord willing.”

I nodded, and the kettle started whistling. “Ah, let me get that.”

Moving, I placed the tea bag in one mug, my tea ball in another, and I brought both to the stove where I took the kettle off the heat. Flipping open the spout, I poured into the bag mug first, then waited thirty seconds before pouring over the tea ball. I brought both mugs over to the table, sitting one down in front of my father and the other down in front of me.

We both leaned over our mugs and took in the scent of the brewing tea, and then leaned back with a sigh. This was our morning. Our small moment. Just father and daughter. Drinking tea. The troubles of the world could wait fifteen minutes while we enjoyed our small measure of peace.

  



	22. Chapter Twenty

Of course, peace in the morning only lasts until the first jawa shows up downstairs to ruin it. Not that I minded all that much. With the focus being on our father, Mom wouldn’t have any real reason to notice that I still had some head pain; the ibuprofen only alleviated it slightly. She’d be too focused on Daddy, Hope and Harry to worry about me unless I complained of it. Plus, there was the thief. What was her name again?

Wait. I told Daddy that she was one of the people who stole the shroud. I don’t think Mom told me that. Whoops. Hopefully they wouldn’t corroborate the stories with each other, and hopefully they wouldn’t be suspicious of anything. Not that there really was anything to be suspicious of. I was their daughter first and foremost. Whatever past I might have had, whatever foreknowledge I might have, I am and will be Faith Carpenter, daughter of Michael and Charity.

Amanda was the first. She came down to the kitchen, probably looking to steal a bit of my tea when I wasn’t looking, the squirt. Of course, when she managed to make it into the kitchen, she noticed him.

“DADDY’S HOME!” Those two words shook the house, as my younger sister ran around the table to hug our father. “Faith, look! Daddy’s home! Daddy’s home!”

I sipped my tea to hide a smile. Daddy wrapped Amanda up into a hug, lifting her off of the ground. “Good morning, Princess.”

“Daddy, you were gone so long, and you didn’t call!”

“I’m sorry, sweetie. I wasn’t in a position that I was able to call yesterday,” our father explained.

“You gave the bad monsters a good thrashing?” Amanda asked, and I cocked my head.

“Where did you hear a word like ‘thrashing’?”

“The man said it on TV! And then Buffy kicked butt!” I blinked in time with Daddy. I’m sure we shared the same dumbfounded look there. That… Why was my nearly six-year-old sister watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

“When did you manage to watch that show?” Daddy asked carefully. Why was my sister even interested in Buffy? When I was her age, I liked Power Rangers, sure… There was something special about watching it with Molly and knowing it’d be fun, but Buffy? This year’s season wasn’t exactly a great one either.

“Danny put it on the other night while Mommy was making dinner.”

I officially didn’t envy my little brother at all. At least Amanda seemed to recognize what words not to say and how not to act. When Mom found out about this… Oh, that was going to be one hell of a scolding.

“Mm… Good morning, Faith, Amanda…” Mom said as she entered the kitchen, but then she noticed Daddy. Immediately, she ran to his side, and she gave him a chaste kiss that… Okay, I did not want to see that from my parents. I didn’t want to recognize that from my parents. All of my siblings were immaculate conceptions. “You’re home.”

“I am,” Daddy said.

“For how long?”

“As long as I can be, but the work is not done.” Daddy stood up, and he brought his mug to the sink, rinsing it out. Yeah, the work wasn’t done. The shroud hadn’t been recovered, and Nicodemus had Shiro by now, unless he still had Harry. Molly’s and my work wasn’t done either.

I looked down at my teacup, only to find Amanda’s hands sliding a piece of paper into my view. “Faith, lookit!”

“I’m looking, I’m looking….” What was I looking at here? Two yellow-haired girls, standing with what looked like swords against… what was that? A dark-haired man with a sword stood behind the girls, but I couldn’t clearly make out what they were facing. “What am I looking at, squirt?”

“There’s you and Molly!” Amanda said, proudly. Well, for a squirt, her art skills weren’t terrible. That probably made the man Thomas. “And he’s Jim! Or Tommy!”

“Okay, so what’s that?” I pointed.

Amanda shook her head and leaned in, whispering. “I don’t know. It’s not supposed ta say…”

I frowned. What was… Amanda couldn’t have taken the book. The cover wouldn’t have been in Maeve’s hands if that happened, so how could she have this? Not supposed to say?

A pair of arms lazily wrapped down around me from behind. “Morning, Fai.”

“Morning, Moll.” I leaned back in her embrace. _Daddy’s home_.

“So I’d heard,” she murmured. “So, squirt… new drawing? Why show Fai first?”

“Cause she’s my favorite.”

Before we could open that can of worms, the phone started ringing. I stood up, out of Molly’s hug for a second. “I’ll get it.”

Wobbling only ever so slightly, I managed to make it over to the phone. I glanced over at my twin’s expression as she looked at me. Frowning, I tapped my foot twice. _What?_

_You sure you’re okay?_ Molly’s fingers tapped at her elbow.

_I’m absolutely fine_. I glanced to the ringing phone, and I picked it up. “Hello, Carpenter residence.”

“Hello, is this Molly or Fai?” Cecelia asked from the other end.

“Yes,” I said. “I am Molly or Faith. Seriously, Cece, you’ve known us how long?”

“Fai, then.” She laughed. “Good, glad I managed to catch you. We missed you two last night.”

“Well, we had a thing. Who won?”

“Actually, I don’t know. I had to duck out a little earlier than I wanted, but I had a fun night regardless.”

I glanced over to Molly who was tapping her wrist. _What’s she doing calling this early?_

“So, why the early call?” I asked, echoing Molly aloud.

“Oh, I figured you might be up. Since we missed each other last night, want to meet up later today? Say around five-ish?”

“I think we might be able to swing that.” Judging from the way Daddy and Mom were talking, I was pretty sure we’d have to get dressed soon anyway. I wanted to swing by St. Mary’s to go to Confession before Mass tomorrow, but if I didn’t get Father Forthill as my priest, I wouldn’t say a word about my magic. “Where at?”

“Millennium Park. I want to show you guys something,” Cecelia said.

“Oh, now you’ve got me curious.”

“Good!” Cecelia laughed. “Means you’ll come. Well, I need to call Drew and Jace to get them as well. See you later?”

“Yeah. Later, Cece.” I hung up the phone with a smile on my face. It was going to be nice to hang out with our friends later. Amanda had gone over to Mom and Daddy, to talk with them, presumably, but Molly had stuck near me.

“So?”

“You heard the conversation.” I shrugged. _Should give us time to…_

“Barnes and Noble after we go to the church?”

I nodded. “Seems like a good bet. Probably safer than most areas too.”

“And I can get my cappuccino.” Molly grinned as I shuddered.

“Still don’t know how you stand that stuff.”

“I still don’t k— Oh, I might actually know why you can’t,” Molly said. _The old life thing. Maybe something carried over._

I shrugged. _Hell of a thing to carry over._

“Let’s go get changed. Ms. Valmont’s in the shower.” Oh. That’s what her name was. Anna Valmont. Member of the Churchmice. Last surviving member, I guess. I think that Snake Denarian’s what killed her friends or… Deirdre.

“Oh?”

“She woke me up.” Molly shrugged. “And I asked her about Harry’s fun time cuffs. She laughed, so I think she’ll be fine.”

“You let Mom know she’s awake?”

Molly just gave me a look, and I laughed.

“Mom, Daddy, we’ll be back down,” Molly and I said as we headed up to our room. So, why Daddy instead of Daddy? I suppose it’s because our father… he’s a very good man. It’s easy to be close to him, and it really wouldn’t feel right calling him ‘Daddy,’ even in my own head. I do occasionally, but he’s long since earned that name. Mom is around more, and in some ways it’s a bit easier to talk to her about things. That’s why her name is shorter.

As we climbed the stairs to get to our room, we passed Alicia, who was carrying Hope down. Beaming at them, we mouthed that Daddy was here so they’d get down faster, and we continued upward.

“I’m not going to call her Leech, Moll.”

“It’s a perfectly valid nickname.”

“Allie, or Alice.” I crossed my arms. “Hobbit’s good for Hope though.”

“Fine, fine.” Molly shook her head. “Ruin the fun.”

We made it into our room and shut the door behind us. Ideally, we’d be taking a shower, but with Anna Valmont using the good one and the boys doing who knows what with the other one, we’d probably have to delay.

“So,” Molly said as she took off her t-shirt. She went to the dresser and pulled out some clothes, and I went to do the same. “We should probably figure a couple things out today.”

“Yeah, no kidding.” I winced as my shirt brushed against my head wounds.

“Those are still giving you trouble? Maybe we should—”

“Not talk to Mom, Moll. What are we going to tell her? ‘Oh yes, I got hurt while fighting a faerie monster? Oh by the way, we have magic. We’re going to ask Harry Dresden to train us after this whole mess with the Denarians is over. Yes, that Harry Dresden. Oh, we’re grounded? Oh, we’re not allowed to use our magic?’” I shook my head.

“Daddy would let us,” Molly said.

“Yeah, he probably would, but Mom… I think she doesn’t like magic at all. Maybe something happened with that Dragon that Daddy killed. Why Mom was even there in the first place.”

Molly laughed. “You know, I thought it’d be me arguing why we should keep it secret and you arguing why we should tell them.”

“Maybe some wires got crossed the last time we did the merging thing.”

“Speaking of,” Molly said and then cocked her head. _Notice how much easier this is?_

I nodded. _Too easy, almost. Thomas noticed last night._

“I think it just confused him because we slipped between the two.” Molly shrugged. “But man that spell of his was slow.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know how fast it’s supposed to go, but I’m pretty sure it’s also not supposed to act like a GPS tracker or something. That thing had pathfinding. The one Harry used to find me… Didn’t. At least, I don’t think it did. He had to triangulate my position, if I remember right.”

Molly hugged me. She knew how much I really didn’t like remembering that incident, and I took comfort in her embrace. “So, you think that, what? Thomas screwed up?”

I shrugged, not exactly hard nor easy in a hug. “I don’t know. I tried to do some magic before Daddy showed up though. Didn’t quite manage to get off the spell before the door started opening.”

“Oh, what spell were you doing?”

I buried my face in her shoulder and mumbled the spell name.

“I didn’t quite catch that.”

I mumbled again.

“I’m sorry, you’re going to have to speak out loud.”

“ _Wingardium Leviosa._ ” I said, not bothering to put any power or will behind it. I didn’t want to accidentally cast something like that.

“Well, it’s clear why that didn’t work.” Molly sniffed imperiously. “It’s pronounced LeviOHsa, not LeVIosa.” She then burst into giggles. I joined her a moment later. God, we were such geeks.

“It occurred to me, when Daddy came in,” I said in between giggles. “That I didn’t want my spells to be Harry Potter.”

“So why?”

“I couldn’t think of a good levitation incantation.” I giggled a little more.

“Well, maybe we’ll have to try that together. Somewhere private, after we read up a bit more on magic. Or get Harry to start training us.”

“As soon as the Denarian thing is done, we ask.” Unless something else came up. I had a funny feeling that fate might conspire to make us wait to ask or wait to have Harry available. Some things needed to happen, and they needed to happen with us under him at the right times.

“Yeah. Harry’s the first person we tell who won’t already know,” Molly said, and I agreed.

“Mom and Daddy have enough to worry about without adding our magic to it. The jawas definitely don’t need to hear about it. Not yet.”

“So church, then Barnes and Noble, and then meeting up with Cecelia at the park? Sounds like a pretty good day, despite what we know might happen.”

“Daddy and Harry won’t fail,” I said. “Now… hopefully Thomas comes through with that book. If we can find it, it needs to be destroyed.”

Molly nodded. “I remember. Still, a fun day ahead.”

“Yeah.” I smiled wanly, and then remembered what Amanda drew. What kind of fun would we be having? I hoped it wasn’t Dwarf Fortress style.

*****************

Molly and I were still in the process of getting dressed when the door to our room opened up. Standing outside the room was our mother, who gave a serious look to the two of us.

“Finish getting ready, you two,” Mom said. “We need to get going.”

I blinked. Mom sounded serious. Something must have spooked her some, given that only a little while earlier, she had been enjoying talking with Daddy. I really didn’t know what it was, unless… unless Daddy knew that he had to do something, and it was here in town. Given what we saw last night, it was entirely possible that Daddy had Knight business.

“Where are we going?” Molly asked, even as she buttoned up her blouse.

“Your grandmother’s place. I’m going to bring all of you there for the next day or so,” Mom said. “Things are too dangerous to have all of you sticking around here.”

“Daddy’s gone to get Sanya, hasn’t he?” I asked.

“He left when Father Forthill showed up.” Mom shook her head. “I’d called Father Forthill last night, and I was expecting him after Shiro left.”

“But he… he just showed up now?” Molly tugged up her skirt, tossing me my own.

“He said something about being held up last night, but he’s here now, and he has a baseball bat.” Mom shrugged. “I put Miss Valmont in the guest bedroom for now. She’s still not in great shape, but she’s getting there.”

“Any reason she was in our room last night?” I asked.

“Your room was open when we brought her inside,” Mom said. “Now, finish getting ready and downstairs. We leave in ten minutes.”

I pursed my lips. I really didn’t want to go to Grandma’s, but I understood the logic. If the Denarians decided to come look for us in order to hurt Daddy, here was the first place they’d look. That said, Molly and I needed to get to town today. While we might be able to convince Grandma to let us take the bus in, it would be more difficult to convince Mom not to ground us when we got back.

“Mom, we told Cecelia that we’d meet her in Millennium Park around five,” I said.

Mom grimaced. “Have your grandmother take you. It’ll probably be safer that way.”

“You can’t let us stay and go on our own?” I asked.

“Faith,” Mom said. “While the two of you are relatively responsible, the current events that are going on are far more dangerous than I want you two to deal with.”

“But we wouldn’t be dealing with them. We’d be on our way to the Barnes and Noble and then Millennium Park to meet up with friends.”

“Faith, the decision’s made,” Mom said.

I grimaced. Maybe we could convince Grandma to let us go, but at the same time, it was easier to just leave from here. “Mom, if we’re out of the house, and with Jason, Cecelia, Drew, Glenn or Becca, you’d know where we were. We’d be able to be in contact, and we’d be able to be home when you wanted us to be.”

Mom shook her head. “Your grandmother might let you go out, but I want you there, and I want you returning there tonight. Now, get dressed. We’ll stop by Burger King on the way.”

“Okay, Mom.” Molly wrapped an arm around me, and gestured to the rest of my clothes. _Pick your battles, Fai._ “We’ll leave from Grandma’s.”

“Thank you, Molly.” Mom closed the door on us, and I started putting on some stockings. It’d be a bit cold today, so I wanted my legs to be nice and warm.

Turning to my sister, I sighed. “Grandma’s place? I love her, but she’s…”

“Pretty old, yeah. Still, she’ll probably let us go where we want. Mom didn’t say we had to _stay_ at Grandma’s. Just that we had to go there and go back there.”

“Right, with the Denarians… Daddy and Sanya need to be able to focus on their fight, not our safety.”

“Harry too. They’re going to be going after Shiro.”

I nodded, but I sighed. “I can’t remember exactly where… I want them to save him. I don’t want them to go inside that church and...”

Molly hugged me, and I returned it. Neither of us wanted Shiro dead, but there really wasn’t anything that we could do about it. Not without remembering what church it was. Not if it was already too late.

Forcing away some tears, I pulled away from the hug to finish getting dressed. I hated feeling powerless, but in this case I really was. Shiro had accepted his death. I don’t think I had yet. I don’t know whether I would be able to.

“Internet. If we can keep Grandma’s computer working, maybe we can find the church,” I said as I pulled my jacket up around me.

“And tell Daddy and Mom, what? You dreamed it?”

“It’s better than—”

“Telling them the truth? Daddy would understand. Mom would come around. Sure, the jawas don’t need to know, but…” Molly wrapped me in another hug. “I know, and I haven’t rejected you for it, sis.”

I nodded, and sighed. “Maybe. After the Denarians and this book thing are done.”

“Yeah,” Molly said. “Right when we ask Harry for training. Harry doesn’t need to know about the past life thing though. Unless you remember something that’ll directly affect him.”

I pursed my lips. The books had been from Harry’s perspective, but I wasn’t quite sure what I could actually give the wizard that he couldn’t figure out on his own. I also was pretty sure that anything I could give Harry would probably be difficult as hell to predict how he’d act upon it. Justine had already asked me to keep the brother thing quiet, and I would. I just… I wasn’t sure about… There were things that he’d do, but I wasn’t really sure that letting Harry know would work out. As much as I knew he was Daddy’s friend, that’s pretty much all he was. Harry Dresden was an enigma wrapped in a mystery in a way too tall body wrapped in a leather duster, and he wore no hat. Fie upon you if you suggest he wear a hat, even if he probably would look good in one.

I shook my head. Telling Harry at this point, without knowing him all that well, would probably end poorly. I didn’t remember enough of the series to positively know for certain when certain things would happen. “Unless Harry can help me get my memory of the series back perfectly, I don’t know that it’d help. I also don’t know what, if anything, I’ve changed simply by being here.”

Molly smiled. “He might find out eventually.”

I shrugged. “Cross that bridge when we come to it. Let’s head downstairs.”

As we went downstairs, the sun had started peeking its rays through the windows, finally. Sunrise in February was way too late for my liking; especially when I was in the habit of getting up at the same time every day.

Father Forthill stood at the base of the stairs. Forthill was an older priest with greying hair and wire-rim glasses. He wasn’t that built, and he wasn’t too tall or short, though he was shorter than my sister and I, and his eyes reminded me of robin’s eggs with their blue. He was a good man, and he really was the only priest at St. Mary’s that I not only felt like I could trust, but I enjoyed listening to his homilies as well. Today he was dressed in his casual vestments, and in his right hand, he held the handle of a Louisville Slugger.

“Father Forthill.” I greeted the man, smiling. “Holding down the fort today?”

“Molly, Faith, I’m sorry I wasn’t here last night.” Father Forthill returned my smile. “Your mother’s getting Hope and Amanda ready.”

I nodded. “She’ll probably grab Harry too.”

“And then we’ll head to Grandma’s. Father, we _were_ going to be by St. Mary’s later, but given the situation, well…”

“I understand, Molly. Your grandmother’s local church probably has confessions around two PM, if that’s what you were wanting.”

“Thank you, Father,” I said. “We’ll definitely consider that.”

We beamed at Father Forthill again before heading out to the dining room, and then we walked to wait for Mom and the jawas. So we had to go to Grandma’s before we could do anything else in the day. It really wasn’t a big deal, and I understood why Mom wanted us there. If something—God forbid—were to happen to us from the Denarians, it’d hurt Daddy, a lot. I didn’t want that. I never wanted my family to worry about me again if I could help it. I just really wasn’t sure it was something I could prevent, even with my memories.

  



	23. Chapter Twenty-One

The ride over to Grandma’s place wasn’t too long. She lived on the opposite side of the city, having moved there after Grandpa passed a few years ago of entirely natural causes. Bit funny, given Daddy’s night job and how he and Mom met, but Grandma was ultimately pretty normal for a grandmother. Which is why it wasn’t all too hard to convince her that Molly and I should be able to go to Barnes and Noble to read for a bit followed by meeting up with our friends. She even gave us some cash for lunch and dinner.

I got the feeling that she was going to be quite busy with Hope, Amanda and Harry anyway, so when she dropped us off at Barnes and Noble, it was almost a relief. Danny could keep Mattie and Alicia occupied. Hell, give Alicia a good book, and she’d be occupied for a while. She enjoyed reading about as much as I did, but she didn’t quite have the same reading speed I did. My reading speed really came in handy when studying and learning new things. Sometimes it was a detriment if I really enjoyed things.

The Barnes and Noble we were dropped at was the one that was within a few miles of our school, which itself was actually closer to Grandma’s place than ours. It was along the bus route to Millennium Park, and it stood in a standalone building on the corner of a strip mall just outside downtown. Honestly, it really wasn’t all that different than most Barnes and Noble stores save for the fact that the building used to be a public library. This meant that the bookstore had some private reading rooms that could be rented out, and additionally, it had a bit larger selection than others.

Molly and I went inside the store and split up. She was going to go get us a room rental, and I was going to get our initial batch of books that we were going to check over. We felt that, due to my memories, I might be able to easier identify which of the books about magic were bullshit and which might have some actual application so we weren’t completely useless when we went to Harry for help.

I pursed my lips when trying to figure out which section specifically I should go to. Was magic and the occult considered a part of the “Religion” section or was it part of “New Age?” Or was there something specific to it? We needed to know. We needed to know what kinds of things were out there, what people thought about magic, what we could think about magic… Unconsciously, I reached for that feeling, the feeling of power. As soon as I reached for it, I could feel it welling up within me, and I needed to force it back down before…

The fluorescent bulb above me flickered out, and I groaned slightly as I pushed down the feeling. I wasn’t focusing it. I knew that; unfocused magical energies were _bad_ , but I wasn’t entirely sure how to focus them yet. A mental push seemed to be one thing, but the other thing happened with a jolt. Maybe… I don’t know. I needed a mnemonic device. I needed an incantation. Without one, I didn’t think that I’d be able to replicate what I’d done, to focus the energies and to get them to behave.

To do that, I needed to find books on the subject. New Age first. Going to the section, I looked over books with titles like _Crystals and You_ , _The Science of Naturalism_ , among other things, and I filtered out the obviously bogus New Age stuff. I really didn’t see the need to learn about— Oh God, why the hell was a riff on the Kama Sutra out where minors could see it? I really didn’t want to… okay, maybe one or two flips, but oh God. There. Three books. Something about circles, something with a title that looked to be in a form of Latin, and… _A treatise on the Seelie and Unseelie Accords and How We Matter._ I wasn’t sure whether that one would actually be useful as it had been among a number of other books referencing faeries, but the Accords were what Harry was dueling under this evening. These books would do for now.

I went to meet up with Molly at the room she rented, walking straight to where she was. Molly waved at me as I approached with my haul.

“Only three?”

“These three I’m pretty sure about; the rest over there are kinda iffy.” I shrugged and passed her the book with the Latin title. “I’ll look over the circle book and make some notes, but then I’ll go grab a few more.”

Molly smiled. “Sure thing.”

We entered our reading room and sat at the table. We needed to be careful with the books in here because we’d be charged for them if we were to do much more than just read them.

I pulled open the book I’d grabbed, and started flipping through it. The book mentioned it was written to demonstrate and help gain an understanding of the spiritual significance of circles. It mentioned that circles were often used for one of two major purposes. One was in binding and keeping something’s energy trapped within it. The circle created an enclosed space that trapped energy and spiritual entities within its confines when held shut by will or a similarly charged item. Additionally, it could be used to keep foreign energies _out_. The book mentioned that a circle was the best defense against a spiritual attack. A circle could protect from a thaumaturgical link, or perhaps it could make things easier to focus for the one within it.

I made some notes on the paper I’d brought, and then I thought about that dream I had. Why had Cecelia called to invite us so early in the morning? Regardless of whether we would have been awake or not, it had still been way too early to receive phone calls. I didn’t really want to think the worst of my friend, but my dream had spooked me some. I wondered what she’d had to show us. It probably wasn’t anything major, something silly really. I continued to jot down my notes as I thought. Yeah, odds are she wouldn’t do anything, but then, someone took that book out of my bag. Someone had to have access to my bag to take it.

I shook my head and pushed my chair out. “I’m going to go get some more books.”

I pocketed my notes in my jacket, near my second deck box, and I stepped out of the room. I hadn’t quite exhausted the New Age section, so I figured I’d head back over there to see if any of the other books there caught my eye.

I’d been so focused on hunting down the books that I almost didn’t notice when I bumped into another patron’s hard muscular chest. Books fell to the floor and I shook myself out of it.

“Oh, God, I’m sorry…” I said, bending down to help him pick up his books.

“Oh no, it’s okay.” The guy stood up, and I got a better look at him. He stood about an inch or two taller than me, possibly a hair over six feet tall, and his hair was a shock of red over his pale freckled skin. He wasn’t displeasing to the eye, and his shoulders were broad. If it weren’t for the lack of beard, I’d almost swear he was a Viking. His face was smooth and well-shaven, which gave him a rather youthful look. I’d place him around seventeen at the oldest. “It isn’t often that I run into a beautiful young lady such as yourself.”

“Ah…” Okay. I could deal with this. I didn’t need to deal with this. I needed to get more books so that I could read more about magic and not get myself or my sister killed. “I’m not…”

That was dealing with it? He wasn’t even as attractive as Tho— as San— he just wasn’t all that attractive. Damnit. I shouldn’t have been reacting this way over a simple compliment.

“Oh, but you are. Perhaps the most beautiful in this building.”

“Nope,” I said simply, forcing that out. Please. Molly tended to look better than I did, and God, was I blushing?

“Maybe the lovely lady would like to come with me to the café.”

I shook my head. I was going to say no to this guy. “No… I’m here for other reasons.”

“Come now, surely those other reasons aren’t quite as important as the café with me.”

“No, I’ve got to do this.” I started toward the book section, thoughts of being flustered leaving me, but I was stopped by a hand grasping my arm.

“Come with me to the café, and we can talk a bit, beautiful.”

“How about she doesn’t, and you go to the café on your own.” I looked to the source of the voice, and Drew was standing there his arms crossed.

“What do you want, m—kid?”

“Please, let go of my friend. She obviously doesn’t want to go to the café with you.”

“Or what? I think she does.”

“She doesn’t,” I ground out. “Let go.”

He did so and raised his hands in surrender. “Fine, fine. We can talk another time, beautiful. Perhaps when nosy hu—people aren’t listening in.”

Calmly, he walked down toward the café, and I turned to Drew.

“I could have handled that myself…”

“Oh yes, looked like you were handling it quite well.” Drew smiled, brushing down his uniform shirt. “Besides, it’s kind of my job, Fai.”

“I thought your job was making sure the shelves were stocked,” I said. I gestured to the shelves, and mimed taking books off and putting them back. “Or that they were in the right area, or that they didn’t all end up on the floor, or to help people find things.”

“Well, yes, all of that. I suppose helping a friend out is a bonus.”

I sighed. “Thanks for the help, Drew.”

“No problem. He looked like he was going to scoop you up and just fly away, and I couldn’t let that happen to my favorite twin.”

I blinked. Fly… Why was I getting a mental image of a chap…el… Oh. Oh shit. Oh nononononono. Shiro. Airport. Chapel. Train. Fuck.

“Drew,” I said, trying not to let my voice strain too much. “Can I borrow your cell phone for a minute?”

“Sure, and hey, do you and Molly need a ride to the park later?” he asked as he fished out his Nokia phone.

“Yeah, I think we will, if you’re offering.”

“Not a problem. I’ll pick up my phone when I get off shift in an hour. Meet at the café?”

“Sure. Looking forward to it.”

Drew placed the phone in my hand and headed off to do more of his job. I, on the other hand, looked down at the phone. Dialing a number I memorized when I was four, I pressed “Send” and pulled the phone to my ear. It rang once, twice, and on the third ring, I heard the phone pick up.

“Hello, Carpenter residence…” Hearing Father Forthill’s voice made me breathe a sigh of relief. I wouldn’t have to explain to Mom about this.

“Hello, Father. It’s Faith.” God, I needed to keep a lid on my emotions. I didn’t want to accidentally break my friend’s phone while I was on it.

“Faith, hello. Would you like to talk to your mother?”

“No! No, you’re fine. This is something I can tell you. Unless… Is Daddy there?”

“I’m afraid your father and Sanya left with Harry Dresden about ten minutes ago.”

“Damn. Erm. Sorry, Father. Daddy doesn’t have a cell phone. Sanya probably doesn’t, and Harry definitely doesn’t. I don’t know if they’ll come back there before the night is done, but if they do, I have something you need to tell them.”

“What is it, Faith?” Father Forthill didn’t even skip a beat in asking what I wanted to tell them.

“It’s about Shiro, Father. He’ll be at the airport chapel. If they’re… If they’re too late… They need to go to the train station after they stop the plan A.”

“The plan A?”

“I don’t know. I just know Chapel, train station. They can… They’ll figure it out themselves, but it might be too late.”

“Faith, how do you—” The phone lost connection then. I pulled it away from my ear, and it actually said “No Signal.”

Grimacing at the phone, I muttered. If Fate seemed so determined to follow a set path, what exactly could I alter? I turned off the phone, just in case anything made it worse, and I headed back to Molly, bookless. I’d done what I could. If It saved Shiro’s life, I’d be… I wanted him to live. Daddy would be fine. Sanya would be fine. Harry’d be pretty fucked up but fine, and what else was new there? Shiro… if they were too late, he was dead. I had the funny feeling they’d be too late to save him.

I also had a funny feeling about this evening at the park. I hated having that feeling. Cecelia had always been our big sis, and she’d been ecstatic when we managed to get to the same high school as her. She seemed proud that Molly and I were at her level or above in math too, but I… I just didn’t know. Something felt off, and I couldn’t place it. Maybe it was Amanda’s picture. I hoped that I’d worried over nothing, but I was sure I’d find out soon enough.

We just needed to meet up with Drew at the café in an hour. Plenty of time to figure out why I was feeling this way. God, I hoped that I was wrong. I just wanted to have a good time with my friends while my father risked life and limb against the forces of Hell. Was that too much to ask?

**********************

An hour later, we met Drew in the café, and the red-haired guy was nowhere to be seen. Drew had clocked out and changed out of his work uniform into something more befitting the weather. He wore a dark leather coat overtop of a forest green turtleneck sweater and a pair of faded blue jeans. The three of us headed out to Drew’s car, a ‘76 Ford Mustang convertible painted a deep blue. The hard top was on at the moment, and given the temperature, it’d probably stay on. Drew’s name for the car wasn’t exactly bad, per se, but it did raise some eyebrows when you introduced your car as “Ex Machina.” Especially since I’m pretty sure that phrased in that way, it was a preposition statement rather than a noun. Still, it was Drew’s baby, and Drew’s baby was covered in about three inches of snow at the moment. So he reached into the car, turned it on, and he pulled out his scraper.

“You two can get in, I’ll blast the heat and get us ready to go.” He waved the scraper at the car, and Molly climbed into the back seat as I grabbed shotgun. Riding with Drew was infinitely better than riding the bus.

As Drew scraped the windows clean, I turned to Molly. “So, later tonight, if we get the chance, some practice?”

“Yeah. Though I’m still not entirely sure we’ll be able to actually pull anything off,” said Molly.

“Won’t know until we try. Could always do that—”

“—linking thing. Yeah, I suppose. We don’t—”

“—know what exactly happens when we do it, no.” I shrugged. “Feels more or less—”

“—normal, yeah.” Molly smiled, and then her smile grew a bit impish. “So what about that—”

“—guy earlier?” I pursed my lips. _What about him?_

Drew started beating snow off the rear window, scraping against the glass and brushing the ice off. He looked nearly finished.

Molly shrugged. _I wouldn’t have held it against you if you’d gone to the café with him._

“Not my type,” I said out loud.

Before I could continue, Drew opened the driver’s side door and got in. “Right, to Millennium Park. I don’t know about you two, but I’m thinking of pelting Jace with a good sized snowball when we get there.”

“Jace is coming?” I asked.

“Cece said he agreed,” Drew said. “And I think Glenn is coming too. Becca couldn’t make it. Some thing she had with her Mom.”

“Ah…” I looked out the window. The snow had probably happened while we were inside the bookstore, as it had stopped now. I loved the way the city looked with freshly fallen snow. Snow clung to the sidewalks, the signs, store overhangs, and the various bits of foliage that the city had planted to help keep the city looking greener in the spring and summer months. It really didn’t take us all that long to get to Millennium Park from the store, and as we turned onto Monroe, I could see the ice rink, along with a lovely open area of snow-covered grass.

There really weren’t a lot of people at the park that day, probably due to the weather, so we’d have the nice area of the park to ourselves. As Drew pulled into a parking spot, I could see Glenn, Jason and Cecelia standing near the Pavilion. Cecelia waved at us as we stepped out of the car, and I grimaced slightly as my head throbbed. I was fine. Today was going to be fine. This was going to just be some fun times with friends.

We met up with them under the speakers of the Pavilion. No music was scheduled to play today, so most of the electronics had been taken down for winter. Which, I supposed, was a good thing, given that the snow had piled up on the structure as well.

I hugged Cecelia when we got close. Her jacket, my jacket, and both of our gloves made the hug little more than pressure, but it was the closeness that mattered, even if it was through clothing. “Hey Cece, sorry if we’re a bit late. Drew’s car had a bit more snow than he was expecting.”

Cecelia laughed and returned my hug. “We just got here a bit early, honestly. Drew, your car troubles are safe with me.”

“So what did you want to show us?” Molly asked as I released the hug.

“Jumping right into it, eh?” Cecelia teased. “There’s a bunch of fresh snow. I mean, I know we’re not kids anymore, but don’t tell me you don’t want to do anything with it.”

“You mean something like this?” Glenn tossed a snowball at Cecelia’s back, and it powdered on impact.

“I could get behind that,” I said, scooping up my own snowball to return fire at Glenn.

Pretty soon, the six of us were engaged in an all-out free-for-all snowball fight. Molly and I couldn’t quite seem to hit each other, but we did a pretty good job of hitting and being hit by everyone else. Eventually, Cecelia joined us in a truce, and the boys decided to team up as well. We ducked down behind makeshift snow forts, and we continued tossing.

“Molly! Down!” Cecelia called out as a snowball came at my sister.

“Fai, get me more snow!” Molly yelled to me and I tossed a couple balls to her in a way to keep them whole.

“Jace, you’re throwing at the wrong target! Hit Cece!” Drew didn’t seem to want to hit me. Too bad.

All in all, this was a fun distraction from the worries of the day, despite my aching head. The ibuprofen had more or less worn off, and when I got hit by a snowball directly in the forehead, I fell backward onto the snow.

That hurt far more than it should have from a single fucking snowball. Gah, my head throbbed, over and over with each heartbeat, and I swear there was an encroaching blackness. I’d…. No, I’d be fine. I’d power through this.

“Fai!” Molly and Cecelia ran over to me, kneeling at my side. Cecelia brushed my hair out of my eyes with her gloved hand. She frowned and removed her glove, brushing her hand up again. I guess it was so she could feel if there were any bumps or something. God, my head was just tingling where she touched… It wasn’t right.

“I’m… I’m okay.” I waved my hand around. “Help me up.”

“Oh thank God,” Cecelia said as she and Molly pulled me into a sitting position. “Fai, you scared me for a second there.”

Molly frowned. _Maybe we_ _ **should**_ _have told Mom about your injuries, Fai._

“I’m fine. I’ll be fine anyway.” Still fucking hurt. At least the world wasn’t completely spinning around and around and up and down like it had been when I got hit.

“Fai, you okay?” Drew asked as he and the other two boys came running up. “Glenn, you should watch where you’re throwing.”

“Hey, it’s not my fault she didn’t duck.” Glenn held up his hand with two fingers sticking up. “How many fingers, Faith?”

I flipped him the bird. “How many fingers, Glenn?”

Jason laughed. “She’s fine.”

“Help get her up, guys,” Cecelia ordered, and Jason and Drew each grabbed a hand of mine, pulling me to my feet. I wobbled for a second, but I stayed standing.

“I think,” I said, “that we’re—”

“—done with the snowball fight for now.” Molly came over and stuck an arm around me. “I don’t want—”

“—anyone else getting hurt.” I smiled.

Cecelia shook her head and then looked up at the sky, where the sun was nearly touching the horizon. “Okay, guess we can go ahead and check it out now, then.”

“Is it here in the park?” I asked, and when Cecelia shook her head, I nodded. “I need to put my bag in Drew’s car then. I’m not going to be able to carry it with us.”

“Okay,” Drew said. “Molly, let me take her.”

Molly looked from me to Drew, and then a soft smile played on her lips. “Sure, Drew. Fai, wrap an arm around him.”

I did so, and Drew brought me over to his car, popping his trunk. I checked over my bag to make sure everything was in there, and I pulled out my notebook. Doing what I needed to, I made sure everything was in order before shoving my bag into the trunk, and I nodded to Drew, wrapping my arm around him once more.

“Okay, Drew.” I closed the trunk with my free hand, and we met up with the others at the sidewalk on Monroe.

“So, where to, Cece?” Drew asked.

“There’s a place about two blocks south of here that we can talk about it at.” Cecelia led us all, giving significant looks to both Jason and Glenn that had me wondering if perhaps she was involved with the two guys. Nah, that probably wasn’t it, and she’d tell us what she wanted in good time. We walked more than two blocks… We actually walked about six until we came across a chain-link fence that had an unlocked gate.

“Through here,” Cecelia said. “We’re almost there.”

“Come on, Cece, enough with the mystery,” I said. “What’s going on?”

“Just hold on until we get inside,” Cecelia said, leading us through the fence to a door. She opened the door with ease, showing that it was unlocked. Flicking a switch, the lights came on to reveal a mostly empty warehouse, with pipes and exposed wiring running up and down support pillars throughout the area. Mostly empty, of course, save for a cloth-covered long table, sitting in the middle of a painted circular design. The patterns on the circle were both geometric and arcane. Complexity that I had no clue could exist within a circle was there. Unlit candles were at each point of a pentagram within the circle, and on the table… on the table was an all too familiar black book.

“So this is what you wanted to show us, Cece?” Drew asked. “Some satanist’s workshop? How did you even find it?”

Cecelia shook her head. “No, no, you misunderstand, Drew. This is all setup for what I really want to show you. For what I want to offer you.”

“And what is that?” Molly asked. “Cecelia, what have you done?”

“I haven’t done anything, Molly! Fai, you should know. It’s thanks to you that I was able to do this! That I’m able to offer this!”

“Cece, what?” I swallowed. She couldn’t really be doing this. It had to be something else. She was my older sister. I’d known her for years. I’d… It was wrong. This was wrong. “What are you offering? What exactly is all of this?”

“This is the ritual,” Cecelia said, smiling. “This is what needs to be done. To bring light back to the world. To bring hope.”

“There’s… light, Cece. There’s hope. There’s faith. There’s love.” I needed to make her see. She needed to know that she could have these. Daddy fought for this. Sanya fought for this. Shiro was dying for this.

“They’d been banished from this world, and for what?” Cecelia asked. “Some paltry wannabes with power? If we bring them back, guys… If we bring them back…”

Drew let go of me, and he started toward Cecelia, but Glenn hit him across the side of the head with a wooden plank. He collapsed to the ground.

“Drew!” I yelled out. It wasn’t just Cecelia! What the hell? Why would he attack Drew? “Glenn you bastard!”

Glenn stared at me blank-faced, and nodded to Cecelia. No. That response. No. What was going on here? He was… Cecelia was… I tried to take a step forward, but I found my feet rooted into place. I couldn’t move them.

“No, we can’t have you interrupting, Fai. If we can bring them back,” Cecelia said. “We can get what we deserve. What all of us deserve.”

Molly started to run toward Cecelia, but Jason and Glenn each grabbed an arm. God, no. Jason too? Why him too? Why each of them?

“What is that, Cece?” I asked, looking at her, avoiding her eyes. I clenched my fist tightly at my side, moving as much as I could do so.

“Immortality.” Cecelia smiled wide. “True immortality!”

  



	24. Chapter Twenty-Two

It was worse than I’d feared. Cecelia had… No, this couldn’t be Cecelia. I knew my friend. I knew that she couldn’t be the kind of person who would do this. Something was controlling her the way that Glenn and Jason were. Something far more lucid than the two had displayed. Maybe I could snap her out of it. Maybe I could get to her and… She couldn’t really want to do this. This had to be the book. It must have wanted to be read, to be able to infect thoughts, and God, it must have been strong. To get this much done, to allow this much control within the day or so that Cece had happened upon the book? Whatever this being was, it needed to be stopped. I needed to save my friend.

“Immortality?” I asked. “Cece, are you even listening to yourself? This is crazy! Fight it!”

“Yeah, Cecelia! Fight it!” Molly said, squirming in Glenn’s and Jason’s grips. _Fai, what if...?_

“Fight what?” Cecelia laughed again. “Girls, I’m telling the truth. If we bring them back, they will reward us. Cleanse the world of its ails. Give us what we truly need.”

“And what is it we truly need, Cece?” I asked, not bothering to let my eyes leave Cecelia’s face for a second. God, this couldn’t be real. “Is it what you really want? Or is it the book? Is the book in control?”

Cecelia shook her head and walked over to the makeshift altar. I involuntarily tensed my muscles though I couldn’t even move from this spot. I needed to get that book away from her. Why wasn’t I able to move? Why couldn’t I just run over and tackle my friend? Save her from herself?

“This book?” Cecelia lifted the book off of the altar. “While it has power, and it describes oh, such wonderful things, I am in full control of myself, Fai. The Ja’re’be’wo’kay offer many things, including eternal life to those who follow them. I’m simply opening the gateway, to allow them in. Of course, I want to include my little sisters on these benefits! That’s why you’re here! That’s why we’re all here!”

“Yep. You’ve gone crazy,” Molly said, though she’d stopped her struggling against the boys. “I mean, do you really think that whatever _they_ are, they can really grant immortality? That they will even care about you?”

“Ah, not even trying to pretend that the reason I’m crazy is that they couldn’t possibly be real?” Cecelia asked. “I knew I felt that jolt when I touched you, Fai. So what can you do, Fai? Blow things up? Turn into an animal? I know! You can fly, can’t you Fai?”

“Stop this, and I’ll show you, Cece,” I said sincerely. “Let Molly, Drew and I go. Glenn and Jason too, if they’re not too far gone.”

“Oh, but where would the fun be in that? You two will have all the time in the world to show me what you can do, and all the time in the world to learn how to use it effectively!” Cecelia hugged herself. “Oh, we’re going to have so much fun, and the world’s our oyster.”

“Cecelia, what…” Molly shook her head. “How? When did you get the book?”

Good, Molly, keep her talking. Maybe we could get around whatever control this thing had over her. Or maybe we could wait it out. What was it that Harry said? Something about sunrise being the great cleanser? God, that would take a while. We’d have to keep her talking all night if it came to that. If we could keep her from activating this spell, maybe, just maybe, we could do something. I clenched my fist tighter, crinkling what I held.

“Now, that’s a funny story, Molly,” Cecelia said. “I managed to get the book out of Fai’s bag, yesterday. In the locker room. Imagine my surprise when the book Mom and I’d been seeking for the past four years is in my little sister’s backpack.”

“Past four years, what?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“Oh, did that not fit in your image of me, Fai?” Cecelia ran a hand through her hair. “Oh yes, Mom and I belong to an ancient order. A Sisterhood, if you will. The two of you are welcome to join! In fact, I would love for you to take my mother’s position, as it will be vacant very soon.”

“Stygian Sisterhood…” I whispered. Thomas had been right, and it… Cecelia felt like she was telling the truth. This wasn’t mind control. At least not of her. The boys were a different story, but when did that happen? How?

“Now, who happened to tell you that name?” Cecelia asked. “Was it the Venator that claimed you were his prey? White Court vampires, so unreliable. Much like my mother’s preferred choice of thug.”

Two sickening thuds drew my attention, and as my eyes passed over Drew’s stirring form, I noticed the source. Two heads, tossed from some height, severed right at the neck, and not in a neat fashion, as if they were torn off. Oh, and though the heads were humanoid, they were far from human. My blood ran icy when I realized just what Ms. Saratoga’s preferred minion must have been, if she too were Stygian Sisterhood. Ghouls. God, I hated ghouls. Still, with two heads on the floor like that, it meant they were dead.

“So your Mom uses ghouls?” I forced the fear out of my voice, trying to seem conversational. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Molly looking from the heads to me, and back again. _I’m okay, Moll. I can deal with them._

“Yeah. So inefficient. Sure, they’re strong and they work for scraps, but they’re just nasty about it.” Cecelia flipped open the book, and glanced down. Nodding, she shut it after a second. “I prefer not to use thugs. Allies are far better, and you two can join those ranks.”

“Yeah, what sorts of allies, Cecelia?”

“Us, of course, _Jessica_.” A familiarly accented masculine voice came from the rafters.

Esteban Batiste.

“We are honored, of course, to work with the Stygian Sisterhood,” his wife, Esmeralda, said. The two Red Court vampires jumped down from the rafters, holding a bound older woman, who probably didn’t need to be bound, given what I saw on her skin. “Especially when they’re giving us what we want.”

“Vampires, Cece?” I couldn’t… no. This was too much. These vampires. The Eebs were… working with Cecelia? What? “What did they promise you? What did… What do they want?”

Esteban answered in place of Cecelia. “Well, it’s simple, _Jenny_. We are to become Lords of Outer Night, with the help of the beings that young Miss Saratoga plans to summon.”

“And they’ve been a wonderful help in the preparation! Providing some of their venom, taking me to meet with the Winter Lady… Finding the book in the first place.” Cecelia smiled. “Of course, they couldn’t get into that room the book was in. I really need to thank you for that, Fai.”

“… is that your mother?” Molly asked incredulously.

“Oh, don’t worry about her, Molly! She wanted to kill all of you. I couldn’t let that happen, of course.”

“Of course not, Ms. Saratoga. Your friends will be instrumental here. But perhaps… we should get a taste. To help them become more compliant.” Esteban licked his lips as he looked over us.

“Like hell you will!” No, Drew! Not now! Drew got up off the ground and ran at Esteban Batiste, intending on shoulder-checking him or something. Esteban slashed out with his hand, batting Drew across the room and through what must have been a pipe or… huh.

“Stay down, boy,” Esteban ordered. “We’ll feed on you later.”

I grimaced, but when I saw Drew roll over away from the pipe, somewhat, I breathed a sigh of relief. He was alive, but that had to hurt. They’d hurt my friend, but the pipe was… surprisingly pumping something. It wasn’t water, but I really didn’t expect anything to be going through the pipelines at an abandoned warehouse. The air around the pipes started to waver from the fumes of the too-clear vapor.

“I’d rather you not feed on them, Mr. and Mrs. Batiste. I want them aware and capable of joining me without resorting to your persuasion. If you must feed on anyone, my mother is fine.”

“Generous of you,” Molly said, sounding all too much like our mother. “What next, going to offer the vampires cookies?”

“Aren’t you two supposed to be at a duel or something?” I asked.

“You mean the way you two should be? Ortega won’t notice we’re not helping him kill Dresden. He may think that the war needs to end now, but we beg to differ,” Esmeralda said, pulling down Ms. Saratoga’s collar. “Besides, as Lords of Outer Night, we could kill all the White Council members we want without fear.”

Just a bit more time. If we could keep them talking a little more time, or stall them some more, we’d be in better shape. Of course, the natural gas, which had to be what the vapor was, was definitely another option… or it would be if I had a lighter and the ability to move.

Wait. A lighter. Bic. Something… Oh. Oh yes.

Remembering what I carried in my pockets, I focused on the backs of my magic cards. Maybe this would work. It might not cancel out whatever Cecelia was doing to me, or how she was doing it, but if I could use the circles printed on the back of my Magic cards, I could at least use it to focus what I wanted to do. This was definitely a desperation move, but given how my heart was practically pounding out of my chest with the fucking Eebs here helping the girl who had been my best friend… It might have been the only chance I had to do anything at all.

There. The circles, all sixty of them closed as one. One circle surrounding me, in the shape of what was on the back of my magic cards. It wasn’t perfect as I still couldn’t move my feet, but I could feel the energy within me. I balled up all of the fear I had, all of the determination. I used that. I was scared out of my mind, and I _used that_.

“Hey Cece, Eebs, I have just one thing to say to your offer.” I needed to focus. I wasn’t entirely sure whether this would work.

“Oh, Fai? I knew you’d come around! What do you want to say?” Cece was grinning ear to ear when she looked at me, stepping closer to me. Esteban, by contrast had stepped closer to Drew. Perfect.

“Two words, Cece. _Flickum. Bicus._ ” The world exploded.

  



	25. Chapter Twenty-Three

Everything was on fire, and it was mostly my fault.

Okay, to be perfectly accurate, not _everything_ was ablaze. The warehouse exterior walls appeared to be made of some sort of metal siding and were fire retardant; the stone floors of the warehouse hadn’t caught fire, and the humans in the room seemed more or less… well, they weren’t dead, anyway. Thank God. The flames generated by my spell, which admittedly were more than I was expecting, had ignited the gas fumes in the air, and from there, the fire traveled to most of the flammable items in the warehouse. The wooden rafters burned hot, and the drywall and stucco had ignited as well. The heat the flames put out was tremendous, almost as if the flames were right near my skin.

Oh God, my jacket was on fire! I quickly removed the jacket, tossed it to the ground near me and backed away. Oh, neat. I could move again. All it took was the loss of my jacket and the burning of so much… well, everything that could burn. It didn’t look like anything structural was actually on fire, but the flames were still more than that spell should have been able to put out. Maybe I overcharged it somehow.

Damn. I really liked that jacket too.

“Faiiiiiiiiii!” Cecelia growled out. Did I piss her off? That didn’t quite sound like her pissed off voice. She sounded more worried than anything else. “What have you done?”

“Magic, duh,” I said. I looked over to my sister, and she must have decided to take advantage of the fire herself to get free. She slammed her forehead into Glenn’s chin while driving her foot down onto Jason’s right. The pain she must have caused them had them pulling their hands away, and Molly quickly joined my side, as I turned to try and spot a way out.

“Stupid bitch! You’ll ruin everything!” Esmeralda Batiste’s voice came from near one of the blazes, and as my eyes adjusted, I could see the vampire. Her flesh mask had seen better days, exposing half her true bat-like face. She still held the bound body of Cecelia’s mother, but… that… Gah. Blood dripped down from the remains of Mrs. Saratoga’s neck. “I’ll kill you! I’ll kill all three of you!”

“She means we will,” Esteban’s voice purred out of a fully exposed vampire perched on a pillar below one of the unburning metal rafters. Lord, that was disgusting. His fangs dripped with saliva and his solid black orbs stared at us.

I glanced from them to Glenn and Jason, who started toward us, after shaking away their pain. Great. Mind controlled friends to our back, and vampires to our front. Cecelia to our left, walking to the circle.

“No! Don’t kill them! They’re my friends, and they’re as much a part of this as I am!” Cecelia called out to the Eebs.

“Just do your ritual, girl! That was the deal!” Esteban called from his perch, above the peak of the burning flame. “These _friends_ of yours don’t deserve it!”

Drew groaned, pushing himself off the ground between Molly and the other two boys. His attention instantly was drawn to the Eebs. “What the… what the hell are those things?”

“Vampires.” I pulled out my crucifix from within my blouse, and I looked toward the exits. Bits of burning rafter had fallen across each one. Damn. I really hadn’t meant for the fire to be as big as it was. Luckily the structure seemed to be holding.

“Why is everything on fire?” Drew asked, seemingly accepting the vampire thing in stride. The Eebs were stalking toward us, and as I glanced back, I could see Glenn and Jason doing the same.

“Someone objected to Cecelia’s plans,” Molly said, pulling out her own crucifix. “Drew, are you okay?”

“Bit woozy.” He shook his head. “But I think I can get out of here.”

“Might not be an option,” I said. “If it was, they’d be coming a lot faster than this.”

The vampires were definitely approaching, but I couldn’t for the life of me tell why they weren’t coming faster. Why were we being given time to prepare? Did they seriously want to listen to Cecelia that much?

“—‘t kill them! That’s an order, damnit! They’re my friends. You can have all the prey in the world you want, but not them!” The noise from the flames had died down a bit so I could hear Cecelia’s begging.

Esmeralda responded simply by tossing Ms. Saratoga’s corpse into the center of the circle. “Don’t presume to order us, girl! Do your ritual! If you complete it before we kill them, they’ll be immortal, won’t they?”

Cecelia nodded.

I turned to Drew. “Keep Glenn and Jace busy if you can.”

“Why, what are you going to do?” Drew asked.

I looked to Molly, and she nodded. We locked eyes and joined hands before turning toward the vampires. “We’re going to keep us alive. As long as it takes. If you can snap them out of it, go after Cecelia.”

There had to be alternate routes out, non-obvious ones, but we couldn’t explore those with the building still burning. Hell, we’d taken too much time already, but it looked like this building was built with the memory of the Great Chicago Fire in mind. Whatever anti-fire measures the building had, they hadn’t kicked in yet, and the gas lines were still pumping, so the flames at the end were just hovering there.

We gripped our crucifixes tightly. “We believe in One God, the Father Almighty.”

Esteban snarled, as he approached, getting closer to us, but we were sure this would work. It had worked the other night, and we knew our faith was high enough. We weren’t about to start spouting Latin like Daddy, but we believed.

Meanwhile, the fire spell had another effect. The candles in the circle burned hot, and the circle itself started glowing, even as we continued our prayer. In the middle of the circle was Cecelia, book open, chanting, and there was nothing we could do about it. Not if we wanted to keep the vampires from reaching us.

We held up our crucifixes as they started to burn with a brilliant light that clearly wasn’t a reflection of the flames. Our prayer continued, but the vampires charged. The light grew stronger when Esmeralda charged us.

She bounced… off of something. It wasn’t a shield spell, God knows we couldn’t possibly generate one of those, but whatever it was, it removed the rest of her flesh mask, leaving the sickly dark-skinned bat beneath completely exposed.

“We told you before. The power of Christ compels you! Back the _fuck_ off, bitch!”

We continued to hold our crucifixes, taking steps toward the vampires. Maybe we could drive them back. Maybe we could send them into the flames, and they’d die from that. That would be wonderful. Of course, they weren’t Black Court, so there was the chance they could get through if they went the right way. We really didn’t have much that we could do other than hold them off. We weren’t so sure if we could keep them held off until morning. If they were Black Court, we could probably just use the faith magic to destroy them, but they were Reds.

Of course, Cecelia still performed the ritual, even as we had to focus on the Eebs. As much as we wanted to stop our friend, we weren’t exactly in a situation that we could do anything beyond what we were. God, we hoped that something happened soon that could help us. We could only do so much. We weren’t Harry Dresden. We didn’t have his raw power. We did, however, have faith, and that we could use.

“KEEPERS OF THE VEIL! I ORDER THEE TO PART! OPEN THE WAY!” The ritual had English in it? We wavered slightly as the ground beneath us shook.

Esteban tried to take advantage of this, but his wife quickly pushed him out of the way of a falling pillar. Oh, God… what was happening? Was the fire worse? Where the hell… Where the hell had the walls gone?

“THY DEMESNE IS HERE! BRING THY POWER UPON ME AND MINE! COME! COME!”

Wait, was that the sky we were under? Where were all of the buildings? Where the fuck was the roof? Where were we?

Gah! What the hell was this feeling? It was foreign, but it was _magic_. The flames of the candles burned brighter, each candle somehow seeming simultaneously more and less real the more we looked at it. The walls of the warehouse had fallen away, and the pillars and roof. The _landscape_ around us burned with fire. Burning forest and underbrush, trees with leaves of flame… Not trees with leaves on fire. The leaves were _made_ of fire.

“What… where?”

The Eebs took advantage of our confusion and charged at us, batting us backward in the same direction. We flew over Glenn, Jason, and Drew, who was holding his own against the other two. Glenn’s surprise attack must have been a fluke. Drew couldn’t try to catch us with Jason and Glenn still fighting him. At least he looked like he could handle it.

We slammed into the ground a few feet behind them, stopping short of the fire-leaved trees. The landing hurt, but we still held our crucifixes. All we needed to do was push our faith into them more, and… watch as a shimmering rip in reality appeared in the air.

“Ladies, I believe that you requested backup?” A ridiculously sexy baritone voice asked, belonging to an even more ridiculously sexy man in a Buffy t-shirt and some tight jeans that emphasized just the right aspects of his… Okay, we needed to focus on the positives. Thomas Raith had arrived, carrying the kukris we’d used last night. Grins plastered themselves on our faces. We had a chance now. We had a chance.

  



	26. Interlude: Archival Views

Sometimes I envy other children. Normal children. With their normal lives, and their loving parents. With their families, and their rules and their homes. Yes, sometimes, very briefly, do I envy them. It wouldn’t do for one such as myself to envy them long. I cannot afford to allow those times to be anything more than a few nanoseconds. My envy could prevent me from performing the function that I was born into.

I am the Archive, but two whom I believe I can call friends call me Ivy. The most common explanation that I give of my capabilities is that the Archive is the summation of human knowledge throughout history. If it has been written down or spoken in oral tradition, I know it. I have catalogued it, and I have filed it away for further perusal if necessary. I suppose a comparison could be made between myself and the American NSA. We both read e-mails and listen to phone calls, but my purposes are far more benign.

My true purpose is one that I don’t share much. Only some of my Venatori know my true purpose; those whom I contact and direct to act upon what I find in the information I have catalogued know. Their subordinates typically do not. Each Venatori cell performs its functions to the best of their capabilities. Sometimes they succeed. Other times they do not, and I am required to send out another cell to finish the job.

Hopefully, that would not be the case this evening.

I was officially in town for one specific reason: to act as an intermediary in a duel between two members of opposing factions within the Unseelie Accords. On the one side was Harry Dresden, wizard of the White council, and on the other was Duke Paulo Ortega, Red Court vampire. The two had decided to duel for some reason or another; it truly did not matter to me, but I secretly hoped that Mr. Dresden would win.

He was one of the ones who called me Ivy, after all.

The duel was one of will. I had procured a piece of Mordite, which I then enchanted to be affected by each duelist’s will. After explaining the rules in due detail to each duelist and their seconds, I started the duel and retreated to my officiating position at home plate. Kincaid would keep an eye on things from his position in the dugout, where I would return should things turn sour.

In the meantime, my attention was drawn elsewhere. Earlier, a note was written. Now, ordinarily this would not be anything to focus on, but the note writer had intended for me to see it. Faith Carpenter wrote to me.

> _Ivy,_
> 
> _I’m writing this note because I know you’re going to be at the duel between Harry and Duke Ortega. Thomas Raith is Ortega’s second, and I may need your help getting him to my sister and I._
> 
> _I have reason to believe that my friend managed to get her hands upon the book that we had been searching for. Given what the book is and what it’s already proven to be capable of, I’m afraid that it might have affected my friend in some way. I only hope that it’s not worse than I think it could be._
> 
> _I hope I’m wrong. I pray I’m wrong, but the feeling in my gut says I’m right. We’re to meet my friend Cecelia along with some other friends at Millennium Park later this evening. If I have reason to believe my feelings will come to pass, I’ll underline your name in this note. If we’re somewhere that isn’t the park, I will crumple this note, and I will drive my fingers into it such that it tears in areas. I hope that based upon that, you can find us. Molly and I are new to our magic, and we don’t really know what we’re doing here, but I know we should trust our feelings. Yes, I know, run-on sentence._
> 
> _Thank you, Ivy._
> 
> _Faith_

Needless to say, I paid attention to that letter, and directing my attention toward it was taking from my attention on the duel. Faith was… special. She and I were a lot alike. She knew things that someone her age shouldn’t have to know, and she had known them since she was my physical age, even if she had not believed then. Shortly before the duel began, Faith underlined my name on the note, the name that both she and Mister Dresden gave me. I needed to be sure to speak with Mister Raith after the duel.

Then it happened. A gunshot rang out across the field, and a swarm of Red Court vampires came in afterward. They dared to break the rules set out by the Accords and myself? I took control of the Mordite, drawing it toward myself and then I sent it through any vampire that dared to get close. They had all removed their flesh masks, making them more inhuman, more bestial, and I would ensure that each of them got what was coming for daring to break my peace.

“Kincaid, down!” I sent the mordite into a vampire that had been coming up behind Kincaid as he was reloading. Sure, I did not truly need to do so for the Hellhound, but Kincaid was my driver. More than that, he was a friend of my mother’s and had taken good care of me during his time here.

Eventually, through the combined efforts of Miss Rodriguez, Mister Raith, Mister Dresden, Kincaid and myself, we managed to either kill or force into retreat the remaining Red Court vampires who had attacked.

I brought the mordite sphere back to my hands, and I stared down the White Council wizard, as the remaining duelist who had broken the sanctity of the duel. Ortega had run. Still, I needed to clear things up.

“Who broke the sanctity of the duel first, Kincaid?”

“Couldn’t tell,” Kincaid answered. It must have happened quickly then. “But Dresden was winning.”

I nodded. That was good enough for me. “Thank you for letting me pet your kitty, Mister Dresden. And thank you for my name.”

It never hurts to be polite, and politeness begets politeness. “You’re welcome, Ivy.”

I smiled, nodding. Mister Dresden was a good man.

_The note crinkled._

“Kincaid, the box please.” When Kincaid placed the box on the ground, I lowered the mordite into it. The piece of Outside couldn’t be allowed to touch anything else beyond what I needed it for. Closing the box, I turned to Mister Dresden. “These proceedings are concluded.”

“You think?”

I looked at the wizard, but then I turned to Kincaid. “Let’s go. It’s past my bedtime.”

I looked over to Mister Raith, and I sent a thought to him. Simple magic applications. “ _When you are done with Miss Rodriguez, meet Kincaid and I outside the stadium_.”

Mister Raith looked to me, and he nodded. The vampire was far more sober than he’d appeared earlier, and that would be very helpful to our purposes.

I would get the help that Faith needed to her as soon as I could. She just needed to hold on tight.

I hoped that Mister Raith would finish up soon, though. It really was past my bed time.

  



	27. Chapter Twenty-Four

The plan we made had worked. Ivy had managed to send Thomas to us here, wherever here was. We assumed that the duel was finished; Thomas wouldn’t be able to be here at this point in time otherwise. We weren’t entirely sure that the plan would work. Getting Ivy’s attention by writing? Sure, but whether she would be able to actually send Thomas to us was another thing entirely. We probably had the biggest grins on our faces as we stood up, ready to face the Eebs with our backup.

“Thomas, is Harry…?” One last thing to check before we got started.

“Alive and kicking. Susan got hurt though. This other guy came to take care of her, and Harry said he had some place to be,” Thomas said, looking at the Eebs and then our friends. “Looks like you two had an eventful evening.”

“You could say that.”

“RAITH!” Esteban’s voice came out of one of the vampires. “How dare you show up here! Traitor!”

“Batiste? Didn’t recognize you without your face.” Thomas waved the kukris at the pair of vampires. “Just another Red Court ugly without it, eh?”

He had another kukri at his waist and his sawed-off on a strap hanging under his arm.

“Catch, ladies.” Thomas tossed the blades up in the air, and we moved to catch them.

We tried, anyway. The moment the blades left Thomas’s hands, the Eebs charged us, and we had to scramble to try and catch the blades. The combination of not having enough practice with catching blades of any kind when tossed and the panic from oncoming vampires had us tackled by each vampire.

“I’m going to tear out your throat!”/ “Your blood will be sweet!”

We fell to the ground, missing the swords entirely, but we still had faith. Our crucifixes burned brightly in our hands and we drove them into the sides of the Eebs’ necks and they hissed. Their tongues extended out, and for a moment, we were afraid we’d get some of their saliva on us, but a marble-white hand threw the vampires off of us, one at a time.

“Come on, Batiste. What did I say about my prey?” Thomas growled out, lowering his shotgun and firing at the vampires. They scurried away, and we rolled to our feet, but the blades were still on the ground.

“Screw you, Raith!” Esmeralda yelled. “We’ll kill all of you!”

We looked at the blades, and twitched our fingers. We needed to get our hands on the kukris, and we had just the idea to do it. One good spell deserves another, after all. Joining hands for a second, we focused, even as the Batistes moved. We just needed to mentally form a circle around us. Yes, it’d be easier if we had a physical item, but we didn’t have _time_. Close the circle. Focus. Push the determination and the fear we felt into action. _Move_ the kukris.

“ _Fukukaze!_ ” A pair of green streams of energy stretched out from us and grabbed the kukris from where they laid, and we closed our fists. We _pulled_ , and the kukris went, blades first, across the shoulders of the Eebs, cutting deep into one, but only glancing off the other.

“Esmeralda!” Esteban glared at us and ran, faster than we’d seen, claws extended, at… me. I raised my crucifix to defend myself, but he batted that hand out of the way, and slammed me into the ground. “I’ll kill you, bitch! Wizard or no, you’ll die!”

“Fuck off, vampire!” Esteban slammed my head into the ground. Fuck! I needed to stay awake. I tried punching the vampire off of me, but I couldn’t get a good angle. Couldn’t roll. No, this couldn’t be where I died again. Fuck no. Vampires. Red Court. I wouldn’t get…

“You’ll die!”

“Wanna bet, bastard? _Flickum Bicus!_ ” A small gout of flame leaped from the side onto the vampire’s back, followed quickly by a kick from my sister, driving her heel into Esteban’s side. I followed up with my own kick to his… well, I wasn’t sure whether he actually had them, but where his balls would be if he did, and I rolled out from under him.

Molly helped me to my feet, and we closed our eyes, thinking back to the feeling we had on Thursday night. Mom had been home when we got there, and we weren’t exactly dressed like the perfect miss proper. Mom would have had kittens if she’d found out, but we’d managed to stand right there where she could see us. We remembered that feeling, the feeling of being unseen, of being unheard, and we brought that feeling to the forefront as we focused our power.

“ _Sfumare…_ ” we whispered, associating this spell with that incantation in our mind. “ _Sfumare…_ ”

We held the spell, even as Esmeralda stopped bleeding whatever form of ichor made up their actual bodily fluids.

“Where are they?” she asked, her voice full of confusion. This turned to rage as she yelled out, “Esteban, where are they?”

“I believe you should be more focused on me,” Thomas said, and then he fired his shotgun again, blasting Esmeralda in the other shoulder. He ran at the vampire, shoulder checking her as he drew his own kukri. He slashed at her, but she brought up her clawed hands to block.

Esteban growled and charged Thomas, ignoring that we were scant feet from him. “Raith, get away from my wife!”

His charred skin stank horribly, even with the fire out. From what we remember, _Flickum Bicus_ was a candle lighting spell, and we’d used it twice for functions that Harry hadn’t intended. Go us.

As Thomas pulled back for another slash, Esteban jumped on his back, grabbing at Thomas’s hand. We didn’t know if it was possible for Red Court vampires to feed on White Court, but we weren’t really all that eager to find out, so we made our way over to where our kukris laid. Picking up one each while still holding the spell was difficult, especially with the throbbing head pain that permeated through us. It was weaker than when we were separate, but it still was a constant reminder that it was there, and we had to focus to stay hidden.

“Let go, Batiste!” Thomas struck the vampire in the head with his shotgun’s butt. His eyes were almost entirely silver now.

“CROSS OVER! YOU MUST CROSS OVER!” Aaand Cecelia continued to do whatever she had been doing. We knew we needed to stop her, but we couldn’t just abandon Thomas. He’d been helpful and saved our lives too many times already for us to leave him to the tender mercies of the Eebs, even if he could handle himself.

“Raith! If I can’t have them, I will have your head!” Esmeralda leaped at Thomas, only to meet the butt of his shotgun again. Esteban still held onto his back, clawing at it, but he wasn’t using his fangs. Why?

We ran closer, still holding our spell. Holding this spell strained our minds, but we needed to have the element of surprise. Thomas still had one or two tricks up his own sleeve, and we needed to be ready for when he used them. Kukris at the ready, we approached Thomas and his opponents, stepping past Glenn, Jason and Drew.

Drew really seemed to have them on the ropes, and we really weren’t sure whether that was because the two were just that bad at fighting or if it was a side effect of their mind control. Ultimately it didn’t matter, as Drew didn’t seem to need our help as long as we dealt with the vampires. None of the three seemed to notice as we passed by.

The sky above darkened, as clouds started to spiral around. Fuck. We needed to end this fast so that we could stop Cecelia. Whatever was coming, it wasn’t good, and it was coming fast.

“Why don’t the two of you just get off my back!” Thomas reached back with one hand, and his skin turned completely marble. He grabbed Esteban by one of the vampire’s loose flabs of skin, and threw him in our direction. Striking the other vampire with both his gun and punching with his hilt, he then threw her after her husband. The two vampires caught themselves on all fours.

We were close enough now. We could do this, all we had to do was swing the kukris. While the curved blades were definitely different than our usual fare, we’d made do the previous night, and we’d make do tonight. Approaching one vampire each, we let the spell drop as we were about to strike.

They reacted, rearing up and blocking. We pulled back, reaching out with our crucifixes once more. Bracing the crucifixes against the kukris, we blocked their return attack, and then slashed out.

“Kill you!” the vampires yelled. We weren’t even sure that _they_ knew who they were at this point. Their attacks grew more savage, more uncontrolled, and we had to strain to block each one. If we were Harry, we’d just blast them with a gout of fire and call it a day, but we _weren’t_ Harry Dresden. We were untrained practitioners who were half-trained swordswomen. We were facing a threat that we definitely weren’t ready for, that we definitely shouldn’t have been able to face.

But we had faith. Daddy instilled that within us, and Mom helped. We had faith that we could do what was necessary. We had faith that we could block these attacks. We had faith that when the right opening appeared, we could take advantage of it. An opening, for example, like the one Thomas gave by shooting one of the vampires in its side. We grinned, and we slashed. Those bellies were wide open!

Snicker-snack! One, two and through! We slashed open the vampire’s stomachs, and blood oozed from them slowly at first, but soon it poured out like the deflating bladder of a jumbo box of wine. Some had to have come from Mrs. Saratoga, but there was too much. So much. They had to have fed before coming to the warehouse, given that amount of blood. We just stared. The vampires crumpled to the ground, gripping at their stomachs and squirming like roaches who didn’t know they had died yet. Had we really? We… won?

Thomas came up to the vampires, his body looking a little more normal. His eyes still held a silvery sheen though, and his body, albeit a human color now, was still very pale. He removed their heads with his kukri. First one, then the other, and then he sheathed his blade. We looked over to where Drew and the boys were fighting, to notice Drew sitting down next to a clearly unconscious Glenn and Jason. Drew didn’t look too good.

Lightning crashed, and the clouds circled faster, multiple ethereal green lights joining them until they formed a whirlwind. Some sort of energy, dark red, so dark that it was almost black, seeped from the bodies of the vampires and swirled into the cloud spirals above, joining the green lights, and some slammed into the circle ahead of us.

“COME! I INVITE THEE! CROSS OVER UNTO ME!” Cecelia called, clearly as a part of her ritual.

“That fool girl,” Thomas muttered. “We need to stop her!”

We nodded. We needed to get this done, but… oh God, did we contribute to it somehow with the vampires? We started to approach the circle, intent on breaking it and stopping whatever it was that Cecelia had been doing. Unfortunately, the closer we got, the quicker the whirlwind above spun, and it started its descent toward the girl who had been one of our best friends. When we reached the edge of the circle, the green and red whirlwind slammed into Cecelia, lifting her off the ground for a few seconds before depositing her back in the circle on her knees.

“No… are we?” we asked, not daring to complete the question.

“Too late.” Cecelia’s voice had taken on a polyphonic tone as she stood within the circle. The candles had blown out in the wind, and her eyes glowed an unnatural shade of solid green, tinged with an aura of red. She might not have had the second set of eyes that a Denarian would have, but something about her current state ate at us. There were way too many voices there.

Thomas cleared his throat. “I’m going to have to ask that you return to your portion of the Nevernever and leave that girl.”

Really, he was going to try and talk the thing down? Did he not have any sort of plan? We needed to get it out of Cecelia. We needed to stop it. Whatever was in Cecelia seemed to agree with our confusion about Thomas’s statement as it looked at the vampire using her eyes.

“We believe that we shall stay. Unless…” Cecelia, or whatever was in her now, looked at the three of us. “Tell us. Are any of you a god?”

… How the hell were we supposed to answer a question like that? We’d seen the movie. We’d seen this movie. We knew what was likely the wrong answer, but what would happen if we lied and answered the other way?

We withheld our answer, running our feet along the dirt floor, digging in as we watched Cecelia. We didn’t want to piss the creatures within off if we didn’t know how to handle it.

“… No?” Thomas said, though it sounded like a question. Apparently Thomas _hadn’t_ seen that movie. He glanced at us, looking down at our feet before looking back to Cecelia, a smile threatening his lips.“I don’t think anyone here is a god.”

“Thomas… really?” We asked incredulously. Had he not seen the movie? We knew what must be coming. What needed to be coming. The only possible response that the beings within Cecelia could give to that sort of answer.

Cecelia’s mouth curled up into a sickening smirk. “THEN DIE!”

Yep. Called it.

  



	28. Chapter Twenty-Five

Now, something before we continue, a warning, if you will. The events that happened that day… we don’t exactly remember them clearly, or rather our memories of them are suspect. That said, something happened there. Cecelia, our friend, one of our best friends had been compromised by the very beings we sought to prevent from reaching this reality. We’ll try to describe the events after she became possessed to the best of our ability, and this is how we remember it happening.

We couldn’t believe that Thomas answered Cecelia in that way. The one thing that sticks in mind about that movie’s scene is when asked if you are a god, you answer “yes.” Of course, the expected reaction happened. You’d think that whatever the ancient beings that Cecelia had summoned to herself had seen that movie too.

Cecelia extended her hand, and a green light coalesced around it. We could feel the power gathering, and we extended our own will into what we carved into the dirt with our feet. There was a surefire protection against spiritual and magical attacks, circles.

Thomas jumped into the circle with me just as it snapped shut. I stared down the beings possessing my friend as they unleashed a wave of energy from her hand that just washed over us. I held my will constant as the energy pulsed, spreading out over the edges of the circle and washing overhead. Even with my damn throbbing fucking head, holding the circle shut was simple. I didn’t even think I needed a constant application of will for it, but I wasn’t going to take that chance when we were under attack.

Man. I wished I knew how to shield.

Finally, the energy stopped, and Cecelia lowered her hand.

“Thomas,” I muttered. “Have you not seen _Ghostbusters_? If something asks if you’re a god, you say yes!”

“Like I said, Faith. There are no gods here.” Thomas brushed himself off, and stepped out of my circle, forcing it open. “Just some ancient beings that shouldn’t even be here.”

Cecelia’s glowing eyes narrowed. “We _are_ gods, mortal! And we will crush you!”

“I thought the whole point of summoning you was immortality,” Molly said as she broke her own circle. I could feel her fear now, an echo of my own. If we couldn’t stop these things here, what would we be unleashing on Chicago, on Earth? Still, she managed to hide it, and with her there, it was easier to hide my own.

“We will grant our immortality to one person,” the cacophonous voices said using Cecelia’s mouth. “And we will be known again.”

“Known for what,” I asked. “Being inept at everything?”

Immediately, I regretted what came out of my mouth, as the grin on Cecelia’s face just got wider, and she started to change. Green ethereal light wrapped around her, and her neck elongated even as her limbs did as well. Her lips peeled back, revealing sharp buck-teeth and long scaled whisker-like antennae stretched out from her forehead and under her mouth. Her hair folded into her neck, fading as scales went down her body. Her arms, such as they were, extended outward, becoming thicker, each finger on her hand getting longer and tipped in hooked claws. Her knees reversed joints as her newly clawed feet burst out of her shoes, and a scaled tail twice the length of her body pushed out of her pants. Her torso stretched and burst out of her clothing, leaving an exposed scaled body at least the length of what Cecelia’s body had been. The creature’s eyes glowed the same green Cecelia’s had, and it roared, bending its neck down so its head was on level with us. Draconic wings unfurled from its back, stretching out nearly eight feet per wing, and then it was finished.

Molly and I raised our swords, shakily as Thomas did the same.

“What is it you think of us now, mortals?” the creature asked in the same cacophonous voice as before. “Inept, are we?”

Thomas blinked. “This is new.”

“You think?” Molly hissed.

“Beware the Jabberwock,” I said. “The jaws that bite, the claws that catch… Fucking hell.”

We had a moment’s warning as the Jabberwock inhaled, and then green flames jetted from its mouth at us. We scattered on instinct, jumping out of the way of the fire and rolling. How the hell were we supposed to deal with something like this? Drew, Glenn and Jason luckily were untouched by the blaze, and the Jabberwock continued to focus on us. It ran whiffling toward me, and I ran away. What was it with giant monsters and chasing me?

“Thomas, what the hell?” I called out.

“You taunted it!”

“You started it! No gods here!” I dodged around a tree, and the Jabberwock just went through it like a knife through butter. I couldn’t run too far into the woods. I had no clue where I was going, and these trees…. No. Doubling back, I focused. I really didn’t know how I could do this, but if I could just focus on that sparking feeling that I’d had the other night… “ _Soukotte!_ ”

The Jabberwock slowed down significantly. I wasn’t sure how long I could keep this up, so I ran. Back and around the Jabberwock’s massive body, keeping well out of reach of its claws. I _moved_ , dodging around each falling shard of fire tree, which was… Okay, I’d think on that later. I made it back to the clearing when the spell dropped.

“How?” Molly asked, and I looked to her with a smile.

“Same way we did the veil,” I said, and I turned toward the Jabberwock. “Cece! If you’re in there, fight it! This isn’t what you wanted, is it?”

The Jabberwock laughed. “Cecelia is a part of us now, and soon you will be as well!”

“Okay, talking clearly isn’t working.” Thomas brought forth his shotgun and fired. He ran up at the Jabberwock, and, after firing again, brought his kukri to bear. The slugs the shotgun had fired actually bounced off the flesh of the draconic beast, and his kukri wasn’t much better. Thomas had to use his unnatural speed to dodge a slash from the Jabberwock’s claws, and while his kukri dug into the skin a bit, it barely broke through the scales.

“My kingdom for a vorpal sword,” Molly said, and I nodded. The swords we had… the kukris, they weren’t magical at all. Thomas’s obviously wasn’t either, and the Jabberwock wasn’t a fae construct like the Bandersnatch had been. I stepped closer to my sister, and brushing against her skin, we had to think.

What could we do? We needed a vorpal sword to deal with it, if it were anything like the poem, but what the fuck was a vorpal sword? We knew the poem mentioned it, but “Jabberwocky” was an exercise in nonsensical poetry not anything real. We also knew that there was a magic item enchantment in _Arcanos_ that mentioned vorpal, and it could remove the heads of any creature on a critical hit. We thought about it. Vorpal… really wasn’t real. The Jabberwock wasn’t real. Could it really be that simple? Had they plucked from our mind something for us to fight? Was it? If vorpal wasn’t real, could we make it real simply by belief alone?

We smiled.

“Thomas!” We called out. “Get ready!”

We ran forward, kukris gleaming in the flames of the tree-leaves. As we ran, we focused our belief. This had to work. We needed to have these blades be special. The kukris pulled in light from the trees, and with an effort of will, we were certain. No longer were these normal kukris. Thomas was a White Court vampire, and this afforded him certain things that us mere mortals couldn’t do. Which made him perfect for this plan.

“Thomas, catch!” We tossed one of our swords to him, and he snatched it out of the air.

“What’s this supposed to do?”

“It’s vorpal! It’ll work better!” We called out, alternating between each side as we did so. In the meantime, we only had the one blade left, so we stood back to back, drawing a circle in the ground with the remaining kukri. We needed to protect ourselves from any possible retaliation and we didn’t know how to shield yet. With an effort of will, we empowered the circle, and then we turned to watch Thomas.

Thomas raised his vorpal sword in hand, and he blocked the claws of the Jabberwock, digging in and lopping off one of the fingers. His Buffy shirt had seen better days as the force of the block tore open the front. Its tail wrapped around one of the trees and with a flick, it threw the tree straight at us within our circle.

“Faith, Molly!” Thomas called out, but his focus was on the Jabberwock. If he could injure it, he could kill it. We had to deal with the oncoming tree ourselves.

The question was, how? We hadn’t much time to act. We could either trust in the circle or move out of it. If the tree was real, it would power right through the circle, but if it was— Molly shoved me out of the way of the tree, and moved after me, but her arm was caught on a branch. Luckily the burning leaves missed, but the cracking sound and the wince of pain I saw her make… No. Her arm was…

“Thomas beat that thing, now!” I called out, and I wobbled. God, this pain was worse. I just needed. I needed to stay up.

Thomas took the vorpal sword in hand, and faced down the Jabberwock. In a bit of anticlimax, one two, one two and through. The Jabberwock’s head cleaved from its neck, and the body erupted in green flames, falling forward onto its knees. Burning chunks of skin dropped to the ground, splashing into burning clear goo as they struck the ground. Then bigger chunks fell, limbs, claws… the rest of its neck. After a little, all that was left was Cecelia, kneeling on the ground. Whatever remained of her clothing had long since burned away, but she still stared with glowing green eyes, looking at Thomas.

“We… are not… yet… done...”

Thomas’s eyes flashed silver, and he thrust out a hand. “Faith, Molly, I’ll handle the rest. Grab your friend and leave.”

“Leave where?” I asked, in time with Molly.

Thomas’s body paled some more, and his eyes somehow became _more_ silver as a rip—a gateway like the one that he’d arrived through—formed near us. “Go through, now!”

“Drew!” I called out. “Come on, let’s go!”

Drew slowly got to his feet and went over to us, even as Thomas approached Cecelia. God, I didn’t want to think about what must have been about to happen. Together with Molly and followed by Drew, we stepped through the gateway, which shut behind us.

Techno music boomed on the other side of the gate, and the lights flickered. I saw a flash of something… interesting, and then… blackness. My head really… fucking… hurt…

*******************

“Oh, _come on_ ,” my darker self whined as I appeared before her. “You couldn’t have stayed up for just two more minutes? You _know_ where Thomas sent us. Drew has to be staring too. So much exposed flesh, it would have been perfect!”

She was wearing something similar to the previous night, leather and lace. Fishnet stockings. A _very_ short skirt that left nothing to the imagination, and today she had fleur-de-lis earrings hanging from her ears. She sat cross-legged on a couch, staring at me on the couch across from her. Apparently I had passed out again, that was the only explanation for why I was even here. In her right hand was a book with some man on the cover. He was dressed in a long coat and had a wide-brimmed hat on that hid his eyes. In his right hand, he held a staff. Not a terrible looking drawing, but I couldn’t make out the words on the cover.

“Wait… what?” I hadn’t really been focusing on what she was saying when I came into this. Something about Drew staring? My blouse wasn’t destroyed that much, was it?

“Get with the program, Faithy.” She smiled at me with her painted black lips. “Cece’s ritual took all of us somewhere else that wasn’t Chicago. Thomas appeared through a gateway, a tear in reality… and that means?”

“We were in the Nevernever,” I breathed out. “That’d explain the trees, and the feelings, I suppose.”

“Bingo. Now, what do we know about Thomas?”

“He’s Harry’s brother, a good friend and a lot kinder than he thinks he is.”

“And?” She gestured to me in a ‘go on’ motion.

“He’s a White Court Vampire.”

“Yep,” she said, popping the p. “And what does that mean with the Nevernever?”

“That he can only exit in places… oh God, we’re in a strip club.”

“And you passed out!” She pointed at me. “Before you could even look at the sexy people! How dare you! We don’t even know if the strip club was a male or female one, and now, we might never know!”

“… Is that seriously what your complaint is about?” What happened to the pissed off me from last night? The one who had been on me to use my magic? The one who had… Well, all of it. “You’re complaining because I didn’t see bare breasts.”

“… Keep thinking that, Faithy.” She smiled. “You need to loosen up a bit, anyway. A strip club would do you some good. Maybe even dance at one.”

“Like Hell!” I growled out. “Can you imagine what Mom’s reaction would be?”

“I didn’t mean right _now_ , of course. You’re fourteen. Four years is both a long and short time.”

“In four years… I’ll be…”

She placed the book down on the couch beside her. “In four years, you’ll hopefully have learned what the fuck you’re doing with your magic and gotten more powerful. Molly shouldn’t have broken her arm.”

“That wasn’t—”

“What, your fault?” The other Faith shook her head. “Now you know you don’t think that’s true, and I know you don’t think that’s true.”

“But—”

She held up a finger. “But, it is true. It wasn’t your fault. Wasn’t hers either. We don’t understand everything we’re doing yet, and we just faced a group of supernatural foes that should have killed us. We got lucky.”

I looked down between us. We might have, but…

“Thomas is killing her, you know,” she pointed out. “He was hungry, and she wasn’t going to stop.”

I stood and walked to her, snatching the book up, flipping through it. Most of the text was missing, something about Faith Astor, something about Harry and Murphy, something about Alicia and a guy named Buzz…

There! Thomas…. And a Stygian… and… Oh. Oh no. He couldn’t be doing that to Cecelia.

“Justine was sixteen when she and Thomas met. Age isn’t a factor to the White Court Hunger beyond puberty. Though I bet even Thomas’s father had a thing for little girls. When he could get it up.”

“Cece…” I closed my eyes. She didn’t deserve any of this.

“Those things inside her won’t stop, but they’re in a mortal. Cecelia can be stopped, even if they can’t.” The other me snorted. “Funny, I’m almost jealous of her.”

I shook my head. “She didn’t deserve…”

“Yes, she did,” my other self said bluntly. “Glenn and Jason were being controlled somehow. They weren’t themselves, clearly. She summoned up something that was clearly over the top, and she would have tried to kill us if she felt it necessary. Faith, there’s only one way that this was going to end for her.”

A grey cloak passed by my mind and the sound of a silvered sword being removed from its sheathe.

“The W—” I clutched my head for a second, thinking. “The Wardens of the White Council.”

“They never had the chance to be involved here, but if they were… Heads would have rolled.”

I sighed. She was right, of course. Cecelia had done something fundamentally wrong with her magic, but it wasn’t her fault. It was the fault of her mother and her mother’s order. It was the fault of the Stygian Sisterhood that my best friend of nearly a decade was going to die possessed by the very things the Sisterhood sought to bring forth. Cecelia’s choices led to her fate, but the options she was given led to those choices.

“Pardon me,” a young voice with a faint British accent said. “Faith?”

I turned my head at the same time as my other self, and we answered, “Yes?”

Standing where we looked, near the couches was Ivy, dressed in a white parka. Ivy, not the Archive. I would never think of this little girl as anything but Ivy because she deserved a name beyond what she was.

“Well, this is certainly unusual, but it isn’t unwelcome.” Ivy came over and sat between us on the couch. Seeing her like this, it was obvious how young she was, even with the power and responsibility she held. “Hello, Faith.”

“Hello, Ivy,” I answered, glancing nervously at my other self.

“Oh, you’re just so…” She trailed off as my glance increased to a glare. “Sorry, Ivy.”

“Ivy, not that it’s not good to see you, but are you really here?” I asked.

“Of course. I would endeavor to prove it to you, but given that this is your mind, I doubt that I could produce something that would sufficiently convince you that I am not a figment of your imagination.”

I blinked. “Okay, I’m convinced.”

Ivy cocked her head at me, but she smiled shortly afterward. “Good. Now, normally, I would wait until you woke up before doing this, Venator, but it is past my bed time, and I’m not entirely certain when you will be waking up.”

I frowned. That didn’t sound good at all. Not sure when I would be waking up? Ivy addressing me as Venator? What?

“You’re confused, Faith.” Ivy shook her head. “Though I have the sum knowledge of all medical professionals on the planet, I am not the best at diagnosis or predicting when someone will wake up from unconsciousness the way you are. There are limitations to my abilities. I am only seven, after all.”

I laughed. “Smartest seven-year-old I know.”

“Indeed,” Ivy said. “But it is my duties that have me in here with you tonight. This is not a leisurely mind stroll, after all.”

“You’re here to alter my memory,” I said, realization dawning on me. “Removing it, or something.”

“You understand the mechanics of the Oblivion War.” Ivy nodded proudly. “Venatori are required to forget the names and looks of the beings that they encounter. The Archive remembers though, in case they show up again.”

“So, what, there’s going to be a blank spot in my memory?” I asked.

“I have a bit more control than that. What I would like to do is replace the name of the being and look with something else. While I could just choose it myself, I would like to offer you the chance to rename and redefine what you dealt with.”

I laughed, remembering the cover I put on the book when I first encountered it. “It should probably be something nonsense so that it’s obvious that it’s not really the name. Maybe have the memories of the looks be something similar to what the nonsense sounds like. Lots of apostrophes in the name too. It’s a group of Old Ones, after all, and they tend to have something like that in fiction.”

“Do you have a suggestion?”

“Maybe something that sounds like Jabberwocky. I don’t know… maybe Ja’re’be’wo’kay or something of the like?”

“ _Beware the Jabberwock, my friend. The jaws that bite, the claws that catch. Beware the Jubjub Bird and shun the frumious Bandersnatch_.” Ivy quoted, as I had the previous night.

“We actually fought the Bandersnatch last night,” I told Ivy. “I think it was a fae construct, like Harry’s Chlorofiend.”

“Interesting.” Ivy placed a hand on my head. “Congratulations on your victory over the Ja’re’be’wo’kay, Faith. I hope that it was not too stressful.”

“No, it really wasn’t… painful though,” I said, and then on a whim, I hugged Ivy. “Thank you for coming in here, Ivy. It means a lot.”

“Of course, Faith… Kincaid and I will ensure that your treatment is done well.” As quickly as she appeared, she vanished, and I laid back on the couch. What Ivy meant by treatment was beyond me, but given that she also didn’t know when I was going to wake up… that scared me a bit.

“Looks like you’re stuck with me for a little while, Faithy.” My other self squeezed my shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll wake up soon enough. Pity you’ll miss the nude men and/or women that are out there though.”

I shook my head. “Let’s just… let’s go to a dream instead, please.”

The world faded around me. Maybe I’d wake up soon, and then Molly and I could go ask Harry for some training. Yeah, that’s what we’d do…

  



	29. Chapter Twenty-Six

When my eyes next opened, I couldn’t tell where I was. I was laying down in some… bed. Some single bed with railings. Oh God, where was I? I tried to sit up, but I could barely move. Why? I was strapped down? Who was keeping me prisoner? Was… where… My eyes flit around the room.

I didn’t appear to be in a cell of some sort. A TV sat on a stand that hung in the far right corner, and the door had a window on it, but it wasn’t barred. I turned my head and moved my arm as much as I could, only to be stopped by the straps. Oh, God. Where was Molly? Molly wasn’t here, where was she? Was she okay? My sister. I needed her here. She needed to be here, and I just…

Was there less oxygen in here? I breathed in and out, trying to fill my lungs, even as my heart pounded. Molly wasn’t here. I was strapped down. Where ever here was, I didn’t… I couldn’t… There was something _in me_ , some sort of tube in me, in my arm. And I... and Molly wasn’t here! Where was my sister? Where was I? My… I needed her!

“Mmo…” I couldn’t talk! There was something in my mouth! In my throat… it burned. It, oh, God, I just… I needed Molly here. I needed to know she was all right. I needed her to be all right. My sister. My twin. She needed to be here, and she wasn’t.

I needed to get off this bed. I needed to! I pulled at my restraints, using every aspect of my muscles that I could. I lifted my body upward as far as I could go, only to slam back down on the bed. Grunting with the effort, I did it again, ignoring the tears that ran down my face. I needed to get to Molly. She needed me! I needed her!

“Oh, Lord! Faith!” The door opened inward, revealing Mom, holding a Styrofoam cup of something hot. Which she placed down on a nearby table before running over to my side, and then she hugged me close. “It’s okay, sweetie, Mommy’s here.”

My heart still pounded, and I looked for Molly through the door, but I didn’t see her. Mom’s presence was comforting, but there wasn’t any Molly. My sister never was apart from me for that long. It wasn’t right. She had to be okay.

“Faith, honey.” Mom ran a hand through my hair. “Calm down, It’s okay. Molly’s fine. She’s just at school.”

“Mo…” Whatever was in my mouth made it impossible to actually talk.

“Hold on, I’ll call the nurse and we’ll get that tube out of you and you unstrapped so you can sit up,” Mom said, and she reached over my body to push a button. No light came on. No sound. “Useless. I’ll be right back, sweetie, and we’ll see if we can get the nurse button fixed.”

Mom let go of me and walked out of the room. My heart still pounded, and my head throbbed, but if Molly was at school, she had to be okay… and I apparently missed an entire day, at least. I wasn’t… I must have been at the hospital. My eyes flicked to the side, where an IV pouch hung and pushed fluid into my arm. I looked down… a tube. I was intubated. This was not going to be fun at all, but I could breathe.

Mom came back into the room with a nurse and a glass of water. She wasn’t terrible looking, but I was far more focused on what she was doing for me. She slowly removed the tube from my throat, pulling it out of my mouth and then she unstrapped me and manually sat the bed up because for some reason the automatic motor wasn’t working when the button was pressed.

“If you need anything else, give a shout. If we can’t get your call button fixed, we’ll get you another bed or a bell or something.” The nurse waved as she went out of the room.

I sipped the water. Against my sore throat, it felt a bit soothing, and I looked at Mom. My heart still…

“Faith, I’m so glad that you’re okay. That driver really did a number on you and your sister,” Mom said. Wait, what?

“Driver?” I asked out loud and then winced. It hurt to talk somewhat.

“Your sister, a couple of your friends, and you, were in an accident. Luckily someone saw what happened, and he managed to get you here safely. Even if he should have called an ambulance,” Mom frowned. “Still, he and his little girl stayed here until I was able to get here, and I appreciate that.”

“Molly?” Guess I had to be monosyllabic. It hurt too much to say anything else.

“She has a broken arm. I guess you pushed her out of the way at the last minute,” Mom said, but her eyes narrowed. “Sweetie, do you remember what happened?”

I closed my eyes for a second. I didn’t really want to remember. I knew it wasn’t a car, but I didn’t want Mom to know that. I couldn’t tell her we were fighting something in the Oblivion War. She wouldn’t understand, and it’d put her further in danger than she’d been just as Daddy’s wife. Maybe when I could actually talk in more detail, I could tell her… something. After Molly and I revealed our magic.

“No,” I whispered, and then I took a sip of water. “I can’t.”

“Maybe it will come back, or maybe it’s for the best.” Mom hugged me, and I returned her hug to the best of my ability. “Now, I’m sorry to leave you here, Faith, but I can’t check you out until the doctors say you’re ready to go home.”

“Understand… but why leave?” I asked.

“There’s a more… difficult… patient I need to check on at home,” Mom admitted, and I could see the distaste on her face along with a feeling of frustration.

“Harry?” I asked.

The look on Mom’s face told me everything. “Fool wizard got himself shot. He couldn’t come to the hospital because he might break something important. So he’s in the guest room.”

“Ah.” That begged the question. Why was _I_ in the hospital? Did I break anything important? Lord, I hoped not, and shot… wait. “Daddy? Sanya?”

“Your father and Sanya are fine, despite the gunfire they faced,” Mom said, running a hand over my head. It was comforting.

“Kevlar armor,” I concluded.

Mom smiled at me. “That’s my girl.”

She kissed me on the forehead. “I’ll send your father and Molly later with something a bit better than the hospital food. You should get some rest.”

“But…” I yawned.

“Faith, I know you’ve been unconscious for longer than I care to think about, but you weren’t _sleeping_. Get some rest so that you can be awake when Molly and your father show up.” Mom stood up.

“Jawas?”

Mom snorted. “Sanya is watching your youngest siblings for me so I could be here. Sleep, Faith.”

“Kay…” I yawned again, and as Mom went out the door, I closed my eyes. Hospital. Car accident. Sounded a hell of a lot better than Old One and vampire beating, I supposed. I just hoped that when I woke up again, I could speak better. That it’d hurt less. Molly’d be there though when I woke. Molly and Daddy…

Sleep sounded wonderful.

* * *

The next time I woke up, Molly was holding my hand with her left hand. She smiled at me, but I frowned when I looked down and saw the black cast over her right arm.

“How bad is it?”

“The doctors think I should be able to have the cast off within six weeks,” Molly said. “Mom let us know you woke up earlier and there was a chance you’d wake up again when we got here.”

“Us?” I asked, and looked around. A muscular hand reached under my back to help me sit up as the back of my chair was raised, radiating comfort. “Ah, Daddy…”

My father smiled. “Do you think you’re up for talking with the doctors, Faith?”

“I… don’t know.” I swallowed slightly, and Daddy brought some water to my mouth. I sipped it, and swallowed, cooling my throat. “Maybe…”

“Fai, you don’t—”

“Have to. I do.” I squeezed Molly’s hand, lightly. “You can’t—”

“Talk for you.” Molly sighed.

I looked to Daddy, trying to study him. “Daddy, Shiro?”

“He… didn’t make it,” Daddy said, shaking his head. “By the time we managed to get to him at the airport’s chapel, the spell had already taken hold. We hadn’t time to try and get him help when we got there. He ordered us to leave him, to chase after the shroud.”

“Shroud… where?”

“Harry’s handling it when Charity says he’s good to go,” Daddy said. “You don’t need to worry about it.”

Well, if Harry was going to handle it, I guess I had to be fine with it. “Kay. Shot?”

Daddy smiled. “My faith protects me. In more ways than one. Thank you for the Kevlar, sweetie.”

“Mom’s idea,” I said, and Molly squeezed my hand again. God, it felt good to have her here. “Molly stay?”

“She has to go to school tomorrow, but I doubt I could keep her away,” Daddy said, standing. “I’ll go get the doctors.”

“Kay.” I smiled. “Love you, Daddy.”

“Love you too, both of you.” Daddy left the hospital room. I hadn’t noticed the first time I woke up, but it looked like I had a room to myself. Could Mom and Daddy really afford this?

“Cecelia’s… gone,” Molly said once Daddy had left the room. “Officially she got killed on impact with that hit and run, but...”

“Thomas,” I said. “Needed.”

Molly nodded, blinking away some tears. She reached up her hand and wiped some off of my own face.

“Glenn and Jason are in comas, like you were. The little girl, Ivy, said she wasn’t sure if they’d ever wake up,” Molly said.

“Drew?”

“He’s fine. Had a concussion, but he’s mostly over it. He was in school today.”

“Ivy?”

“She’s with her… Well, the guy. Mr. Kincaid,” Molly shivered, and I felt a pang of fear. “The Archive, Ivy… She’s a cute kid, but she’s a little scary. Thomas gave her the book that Cecelia used… and she took out this box. This thing… this _wrong_ thing was inside it, and she used magic to drive it into the book before somehow moving it back into the box.”

“Book’s gone?”

“Dust. Whatever that was… it utterly destroyed the book.”

“Good.” I nodded. “Can’t be used again.”

“Yeah.” Molly locked eyes with me, and we breathed in and out for a few seconds, enjoying just being with each other. When the door to the room opened again, Molly and I jolted apart, and Daddy came back in, with the doctor and the nurse who had removed my tube following.

The doctor asked about how I was feeling, ran some diagnostic tests, and then ultimately decided to prescribe me some medicines that would help with the pain. He gave me an idea of roughly when it would be okay for me to get checked out of the hospital, but he wanted to be sure that I was well on the road to recovery when that happened. Being awake was a good sign, but he needed me able to stay awake for a decent length of time before he could feel comfortable releasing me to my family. I didn’t really blame him either, as I laid there in the bed. My eyes felt droopier and droopier as the tests went on.

Eventually, I lost my battle with my need for sleep and passed out again. The next few times were like that, awake for less than an hour, asleep for much more time. From what the doctor was able to tell me, this was normal for someone in my situation. I’d managed to get some food down a few times, and drink each time, but I still hadn’t been able to get out of bed. Which is probably why they hadn’t removed one more tube yet.

* * *

I woke, two days after my first time in the middle of the night. Someone had been in the room, watching me. I blinked my eyes a few times, and there she was, standing by the doorway. The woman was a raven-haired beauty. Her hair was so dark and glossy that it almost looked blue in its highlights. She had creamy skin and dark pink lips that were perhaps a bit large for her face, but not so large as to detract from her beauty. No, they added to it. Then there were her eyes, which I looked away from swiftly after looking at them. They were large and oblique, grey with some flecks of periwinkle. Hints of a dangerously seductive intelligence hid behind them, and a dark sense of humor. Something about her smoldered with some sort of lazy sensuous hunger. She wore her curled hair loose over a white blouse and dark jacket with a matching skirt that went down to her mid leg. Oh, and those legs…

My heart pounded as I studied her features, and a smile quirked her lips. I wanted to be the cause of that smile.

“Like what you see, do you?” Her voice was low, with a hint of come-hither, and oh, God, she was a vampire. An ungodly sexy vampire whom I really didn’t want to care about the fact that she was…

“Thomas’s sister?”

“Smart. I like that,” the vampire woman said, and my heart fluttered. Damn. She was affecting me more than her brother did, but I didn’t think that Thomas actually was trying. “And alive, too. Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Lara.”

… This was Lara Raith. Lara Raith was in my hospital room, and oh dear Lord, she was a cheating fucking vampire too. I didn’t want to… I didn’t want to want to, but oh, God, I wanted to.

“Why…?” My throat had been getting better, but it was remarkably parched at the moment.

“Kitten, I’m here because you survived. Not only did you survive, you won,” Lara said, smiling wider. “For something like that, you deserve a reward…”

My eyes flicked down to her blouse and then back up to her lips. I silently prayed for the temperance to resist this. This would end badly if I gave in, and I knew it. My body, however, really wanted to give in, and I could feel my mind wanting to as well. Oh, how I wanted to.

“No...” I swallowed hard. Down girl. “No reward necessary, Lara.”

The vampire smiled. “I could take it from you, you know. Force it upon you, and you would enjoy every single second of it.”

“But you won’t,” I said. “Will you?”

“No, I won’t.” Lara shook her head. “You are, after a sort, my responsibility now. I would prefer that you came willingly.”

“… Not right now.” I couldn’t say never. As much as I should have, Lara was just… She was worth it once, but if I was ever going to do something with her, I needed to be comfortable with myself first. I wasn’t, and I wasn’t going to let my first experience be with a White Court vampire. No matter how good it promised to feel.

Lara’s lips curled. “Perhaps when you come of age. Fourteen is a bit young for me, anyway. Don’t worry about your medical expenses, Miss Carpenter.”

“Huh?” This was a bit of whiplash.

Lara stepped partially out of the door. “Welcome to the Venatori.”

The door shut, and I found myself passing out again.

* * *

I dreamed during these downtimes, of ways that I could have prevented everything. That I could have saved Cecelia, that I could have saved Shiro. I could have stopped it. If I had just remembered everything. I woke up crying too many times over the next couple days because I knew that I had failed my friend, and I had failed my father’s mentor.

Daddy told me during one visit that Shiro had been dying. Cancer. I’m not sure how I’d forgotten that, or why he hadn’t told me during his talk with me. Maybe… maybe he wanted me to accept that there were some things that I shouldn’t change. Some things that I couldn’t. It wasn’t enough though. Shiro might have died, and Harry stopped the Denarians because of it. I just couldn’t… I needed to be able to make things better. Cecelia dying… that was worse.

* * *

During one time awake, I turned on the news. It had been the middle of the day, and the TV only had about four channels that actually consistently worked, so I watched. I actually blinked and did a double-take. The news ticker below said “DOWNED SATELLITE FLATTENS TOWN IN SOUTH AMERICA.”

“In what can only be described as an extraordinary event reminiscent of the science-fiction horror stories around the turn of the millennium, what appeared to be an asteroid fell from space and impacted just outside the village of Casaverde in Honduras.” The screen switched to an aerial shot of an enormous smoking crater and a half-mile-wide circle of trees that had been blasted flat. Beyond the circle of destruction stood a rather poor-looking village. “However, information coming in from agencies around the world indicates that the so-called meteor was actually a deactivated Soviet communications satellite which decayed in orbit and fell to earth. No estimates of the number of deaths or injuries in this tragic freak accident have reached authorities, but it seems unlikely that anyone in the manor house could possibly have survived the impact.”

I turned down the news at that, blinking. I remembered something about Casaverde, Honduras, but I couldn’t remember exactly what—Ortega! Duke Paolo Ortega had a manor there. My eyes flicked to the screen. Emphasis on the _had_. Something had happened, and Ortega was probably dead now, which made every Red Court vampire that I’d met now among the no longer living.

This gave me a strange sense of comfort as I switched the channel to something else.

* * *

A couple days later, Mom and Daddy came to check me out of the hospital. They’d brought the entire family to help load me into the van. While I’d insisted that I could actually walk myself, I stayed confined to a wheelchair until we made it out to the car. Danny and Mattie helped Daddy move me from the chair to the car’s seat, and when I was in there, Hope and Amanda kind of latched on to me, sandwiching me between the two of them. Harry—my brother, not the wizard—even seemed excited to see me, all smiles and giggles. Molly sat on the other side of Hope, but close enough to me that she could reach over with her bare arm and brush my skin.

When we got home, there was a big meal prepared already and I could smell cookies. It was a good family dinner, with just some relaxing conversation about school, and how Molly and I were excused from Gym until we were fully healed. Mom and Daddy both promised us that so we wouldn’t get out of shape, they’d work with us within the confines of our injuries. Then Daddy mentioned the barbecue he had planned that weekend for Sanya’s leaving. He and Mom didn’t quite argue about Harry coming, but Mom wasn’t entirely happy about it. She respected Daddy’s decision though.

Molly and I shared the bed that night, my arm curled around her waist, and her arm wrapped behind my neck.

* * *

The next day, I helped Daddy prepare the grill and the meat, but Danny quickly took over and I let the two of them have their father-son bonding time. Instead, I went and watched over Hope and Harry as the two were playing in the living room until Harry showed up and the food was ready.

I wasn’t really all that hungry, so I only managed to get one cheeseburger and a hot dog, but it was enough when combined with my large glass of Iced Tea. The snow that had been on the ground had melted enough that Daddy’s green grass could be seen on the ground. I knew he had been proud of managing to have grass that green in February, and I was glad that he could show it off.

A bit after we ate, Molly and I were tasked with watching Harry while Mom and Daddy were cleaning up the various dishes and such that had been messed up by the barbecue. We’d moved to the back porch, and Molly had roped Sanya into a little game with the phone book. Prince Albert in a Can. I wasn’t entirely sure whether the Russian man was genuinely confused or if he was just playing along for our benefit.

I moved to the yard, where Harry had been crawling around, messing about with the grass.

“Fai-Fai!” Harry giggled as he plopped down, sitting in the grass and pulling at it a little.

I smiled.

“Cute kid,” Harry Dresden said as he walked up next to me. “Was going to comment something about him playing alone, but you’re out here with him.”

“Well, it doesn’t take both of us to mess with the Knight of Hope,” I said, walking a little closer to my brother. “Harry, there was something that I wanted to—”

I heard a clinking sound, near my brother. Something shiny landed in the grass by him, and he pushed himself to his feet, wobbling slightly and started heading for it.

Oh God, no. That wasn’t… I ran for my brother at the same time as Harry, and I scooped him up just as Harry slammed his hand down over… Shit. That was. Shit.

I looked up and saw a car on the street with its driver-side window rolled down. The man at the wheel leaned back and smiled at me and Harry. “Be seeing you, Dresden. Miss Carpenter.”

Nicodemus Archleone had nearly given a coin to my brother… to me… I looked to Harry. The wizard was trembling, his hand in a fist, and he stared at me. I could _feel_ his fear. Of the coin, of what he had done, of… what I could say.

“Harry…” I started, but the door opened, and in an instant, Harry’s hand was open again, empty of anything. I knew he’d grabbed the coin, but… I followed his gaze. Sanya was there, frowning and looking down the street. The Knight must have felt something.

His nostrils flared a few times, and I sniffed too, to try and… Oh. _Harry_. Sanya sniffed a few more times, as he walked over to us. He sniffed again, at the baby in my hands.

“Aha,” Sanya said. “Someone is stinky. Faith, would you mind if I took him off your hands?”

I shook my head. “Harry…”

“I need to get going,” the wizard said.

Sanya nodded and grinned. The two shook hands. “It has been a pleasure to work with you, perhaps we shall see each other again.”

“Maybe,” Harry said, and he turned to leave. I wasn’t going to let this be, so I stalked out after him, even if it meant I had to move faster due to the stupidly tall man’s gait.

“Harry! Stop for a second!” I said.

“Faith, I need to go, and… I don’t know,” Harry trembled more. The coin must have been affecting him already. Lasciel must have been doing something.

“I know. I just…” I grabbed his bare hand with my own, and oh holy shit, that was weird. Strong. Touching Molly felt like a comfort, but touching Dresden… even when prepared for it, he was… It was like trying to bring my hand close to a raging inferno without getting burned. I pulled my hand away after a second.

“Faith, you…” Harry looked at me, but I avoided his eyes intentionally. I didn’t want to soulgaze him.

“I have magic. So does Molly,” I said. “We need help. Training.”

“But I—”

“Can resist it. You’re the best wizard we know, Harry. Please.”

Harry closed his eyes and… well, I guess he forced himself to calm down. I didn’t know what the coin was doing, but he managed to speak without that hitch in his voice. “Come by my office on Monday after you’re done with school. We’ll see what the two of you can do then.”

“Okay,” I said, and I stepped away from the back of his Beetle. “Stay safe, Mr. Wizard.”

“Hey, it’s me.” Harry got into the Blue Beetle and started it up. He pulled away from our house, and drove off, presumably to deal with whatever he could from the coin.

Once Harry drove off, I shivered. I nearly took the coin myself. It could have easily been me who was dealing with whatever Harry had going on.

“Faith, are you all right?” I jumped, but Daddy stood at the garage entrance.

“You saw, didn’t you?”

“Harry taking on a tremendous burden to save my children? Yes,” Daddy frowned. “I don’t like that he’ll have to deal with that, and I pray that I don’t have to…”

“I nearly… I could have grabbed it before Harry did, Daddy. I very nearly did.”

“But you didn’t, Faith.” Daddy walked closer to me.

“It would have been a…” I trailed off. I didn’t… I flinched away from my father. If he knew…

“Faith, what has you so worried?” Daddy cupped my chin, pulling my face so I could look at him. I couldn’t help but look into his eyes, but I wanted to… I needed to…

Too late. I’d barely noticed that the soulgaze was starting until we were already within it. Before me was my father, a strong man, pious, faithful. He blazed with love. Love permeated every act, every single thing that he did. Love for family. Love for friends. Love for God. Love for all. He stood, an embodiment of the virtue of Love. Was it any wonder that he had been chosen to wield the Sword? _Amoracchius’s_ power, the power of the Divine touched my father, and it worked through him. Daddy was the embodiment of a Knight.

I saw the moment he rescued my mother, bound in the circle as a sacrifice to Siriothrax. I saw him fight for her, breaking her chains, slaying the dragon. I saw the love he felt for her, to help her heal, and to be healed in return by the love. I saw the love he felt for each of us as we were born, as he held us in his arms and as he watched us grow. I saw the love that had him fighting alongside Harry Dresden, from a costume party to on a train. The love he felt that had him fighting Denarians because they needed to be fought, they needed to be opposed. The love he felt for his duty, to save them, to get them to reject the coins and give them up so that the Church could take them.

I saw him martyr himself out of love, saw him standing with his grandchildren, saw him standing beside Harry in a dark vault, facing down a bear-like Denarian and… more. My father, Michael Carpenter, was Love in the way that God was, and it echoed in his soul, warming my own.

The gaze faded, and I looked to my father, to Michael, to Daddy… Just as I’d seen him, he’d seen me. What would he have seen? Would it cause him to reject me? Would it—

Daddy wrapped his arms around me, pulling me into a hug. “You have such a burden, my child. I would take it from you if I could.”

“Daddy…”

“Harry agreed to teach you?” he asked.

“Yes. Molly too.”

Daddy smiled. “Good. I might not be equipped to help you with this burden directly, but he is. I have faith that he’ll make the right decisions.”

“Me too,” I said, leaning into the hug some more. “Me too.”

* * *

The barbecue wound down after a bit and Sanya had to leave. He promised to keep in touch, and I knew we’d see him again soon enough. Molly and I met up with Drew to go to Cecelia’s funeral, such as there was one. It was a closed casket affair for both her and her mother, and there were maybe two other people there besides the three of us and the priest. It wasn’t pleasant, but it was a bit of closure. We chose to remember her as she was before we found out about the book. It was easier that way.

* * *

Monday afternoon quickly came, and Molly and I took the bus to the office building that matched the address in the phone book. Yes, Harry really had an ad in the phone book. Yes, it was under “Wizard.” Yes, it was the only one.

We climbed the stairs to the appropriate floor for the office. Neither Molly nor I wanted to trust an elevator that looked as suspect as that one, and we approached the door that simply said “HARRY DRESDEN, WIZARD” on it.

Shortly after we knocked, Harry came to open the door, looking a lot better than he had when he was leaving the barbecue.

“Ah, grasshoppers, you’re early. Good.” Harry smiled, stepping aside so we could enter. We did so, easily. “Let’s see what you can do.”

We may not have known much about magic yet, but we needed to learn. It was time we did just that.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s Notes:
> 
> So, that’s the end of the first book of Building Faith. This is the first fanfic that I’ve ever actually managed to write to completion, and definitely the longest one I’ve ever managed to write. Faith’s adventures will continue, of course, but each arc is about the equivalent of a Dresden Files novel. It’s the few days out of the year that Faith and Molly’s lives are not normal. For them, anyway. If you enjoyed this, please feel free to review.


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